On 6th December 2017, MediaNama held a discussion in Delhi, on the Impact of Internet Shutdowns, with support from Facebook. The following is part 2 of notes based on the first session of these discussions. Read part 1 here. Internet shutdowns have a huge impact on the people that depend on the internet — which is everyone. There are huge implications of shutdowns on education, banking, commerce, and even on the very law enforcement and administrations that impose these bans. Journalists Working professionals mostly got impacted, Manish Adhikary, who runs the Teesta Herald in Darjeeling, said. "So who were affected by the ban? Mostly it was working professionals, especially journalists. A journalist from DNA and I went to Darjeeling when the 100 day shutdown in Darjeeling was going on, and we had a nightmarish experience trying to send the stories across to our offices; I was freelancing for TOI, and Bimal Gurung, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president, addressed a press conference and we were there. He gave us an exclusive one-on-one interview, and we both filed around 1000-word copies, and at first, we tried sending it across through SMS, and it just was not possible." Adhikary later filed the story after a local guided him and the other journalist to the "Jio Hills", where there were faint Internet tower signals from across the state border in Sikkim. [caption id="attachment_178837" align="aligncenter" width="1000"] Manish Adhikary (left), Teesta Herald[/caption] Aakash Hassan, a journalist with 101Reporters, wrote a story on militant leader Burhan Wani's execution…
