The Gauri Memorial Trust is set to bring out a newspaper in honour of slain journalist Gauri Lankesh on March 8 – International Women's Day.
The Kannada tabloid edited by Gauri - Gauri Lankesh Patrike - had stopped publishing after she was gunned down at her residence in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017. An edition of the newspaper was due to come out on September 7 but was later pushed to September 30 due to her death. However, the paper stopped publishing after that.
The Gauri Memorial Trust was formed in December last year and aims to continue Gauri's people-centric brand of journalism, representing farmers’ movements, marginalised sections and labour unions, among others.
The launch of the new paper was confirmed on 'Gauri Day', an event held in her memory on January 29, her birth anniversary, in Bengaluru.
"We have been asked several times when we will start the paper. It's a big responsibility to continue Gauri's Patrike and it is our responsibility to continue it. The trust wants to say that the newspaper will be launched on March 8 because it is both International Women's Day and also the day the Gauri Lankesh Patrike was originally launched," said Doddipalya Narasimha Murthy, an activist from Bengaluru and secretary of the Gauri Memorial Trust.
Gauri Lankesh, an activist-cum-journalist, was shot dead at point blank range on September 5, 2017, in Bengaluru.
A plan to launch a weekly newspaper to memorialise Gauri was hampered due to a lack of funds and a temporary injunction obtained by Indira Lankesh, Gauri’s mother, restraining people from starting a newspaper with the terms ‘Gauri’ or ‘Lankesh’.
However, the finances for the newspaper has not yet been arranged, and the trust has invited citizens to contribute to the launch. The name of the newspaper is yet to be revealed, but Narasimha Murthy hinted that it could be called ‘Navoo Gauri’ (We are Gauri).