Editor's Guild of India condemned the arrest of journalist Prashant Kanojia over a tweet that had objectionable comments about Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The Guild called it “an effort to intimidate the press, and stifle freedom of expression”.
UP Police on Saturday had arrested Kanojia, a freelance journalist in Delhi, after he shared a video on his Facebook and Twitter accounts, of a woman speaking to the media outside the chief minister's office. She claimed that she had sent the CM Adityanath a marriage proposal.
A complaint was lodged by a police officer in Lucknow, alleging that Kanojia is trying to “malign” the chief minister’s image. Kanojia was booked under charges of IPC Section 500 for defamation (imprisonment or with fine or with both) as well as Section 66 A of IT Act which criminalises the sending of offensive content through computer or other communication devices.
A television news channel's editor and owner were also arrested on the same day for airing the video. The Guild said, “The FIR in this case is also not filed by the person allegedly affected but suo motu by the police. This is a condemnable misuse of law and state power.” The Guild reiterated its demand that defamation be decriminalised. “The misuse of law in this specific case, as in Karnataka earlier, goes way beyond criminal defamation as many IT Act and Indian Penal Code provisions have been invoked in what looks like a motivated and vindictive action.” This was said in light of the recent defamation case in Karnataka against a journalist for his report on a politician’s son.
Several media organisations and politicians have expressed their strong condemnation over police action against media persons. The outrage of netizens is evident with the #FreePrashantNow trending on Twitter.
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Jagisha Arora, Kanojia’s wife, has claimed that there was a failure in the following of proper procedure and hence, the arrest of her husband is illegal. Shadan Farasat, Arora’s advocate told the court that the FIR against Kanojia was illegal, as under defamation law, there is no need to file FIR and it is only for the magistrate to act, not the police and that no warrant had been issued. He also said that the offences mentioned against him were bailable.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the plea filed by Arora challenging Kanojia's arrest on Tuesday.
Apart from the above three arrests made over last three days, a man has been arrested in Gorakhpur on Sunday, for allegedly defaming Yogi. The conflict between the two fundamental rights, the right to freedom of speech and expression granted by Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution and the right to reputation which is contemplated by the defamation law, has long been in existence. These arrests had sparked a huge debate on social media about the freedom of expression in the country and as the Editor’s Guild asserted, seems to be an ‘authoritarian use of law’.
