Journalist Neha Dixit on Wednesday said that she was being stalked since the last few months and had received rape, acid attack and death threats. Dixit also said there was a break-in attempt at her home on Monday and that she had filed a police complaint.
Dixit revealed her ordeal in a statement on Twitter. “Since September 2020, I am being physically stalked,” she said. “The stalker identifies my exact physical location on phone calls and threatens me with rape, acid attack and death, clearly bringing my profession as a journalist into the conversation.”
The journalist said that she had been receiving calls from more than two dozen phone numbers. She added that the stalker also threatened to kill her partner Nakul Singh Sawhney, who is a documentary filmmaker.
She said that someone tried to break into her house around 9 pm on January 25 and “ran away when I shouted and opened the door”. Dixit added that the police have begun investigation after she filed a complaint.
Dixit also drew attention to the increasing instances of physical violence against journalists, artists and academics. “I feel the need to put this on record because while there is a lot of conversation about online trolling, and rightfully so, it is time that we make a sincere effort to up the momentum on offline, physical threats and attacks too,” she said.
The journalist added: “Looking at the recent precedents where so many journalists, artists, filmmakers, activists, academics have faced violence, some killed, for doing their job, it is imperative that we start paying attention to violence beyond the online world.”
Dixit said that by publicly speaking about her experience, she wanted to push for strict action against those involved in violence against media professionals. “I also want to say that I don’t want this to become about me,” she said. “An integral part of my training as a reporter is that ‘the reporter is not the story’.”
Dixit is a freelance reporter who has covered politics, social justice and gender across media platforms for over a decade. Her works have been published in The New York Times, Al-Jazeera, Caravan and The Wire. Dixit has won several awards, including the International Press Freedom Award in 2019.
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