The Editor’s Guild of India has written to the UP chief minister expressing its concerns about the "intimidation" and "harassment by authorities" of journalists in the state.
The two-page letter cites the cases of 11 journalists who have been ‘unjustifiably arrested on spurious charges’ by the administration.
Yogi Adityanath had recently tweeted that the arrest of Republic TV executive Editor Arnab Goswami was an assault by the Congress on freedom of expression. The guild’s letter alludes to this by saying “You were right to promptly uphold the freedom of the press when an editor of a TV channel was arrested in Mumbai, there are far more compelling cases…in UP”.
The journalists whose names feature in the list include Supriya Sharma whose report in June on the shortage of food in the Prime Minister’s adopted village of Domari (Varanasi) led to an FIR for defaming members of the Sc/ST community and for negligent act likely to spread infection of disease serious to life. Also on the list are Vijay Vineet Mishra—a journalist and photographer who had done a story on Musharas being forced to eat grass during the lockdown in March. Both of these stories were reported by THE WEEK.
Editors Guild of India has sent a letter to the Chief Minister of UP, on protection of press freedom and journalists' rights. The letter highlighted some of the recent cases of state excesses against journalists, and urged the CM to take steps for protecting their rights. pic.twitter.com/ahxJpLdKNc
— Editors Guild of India (@IndEditorsGuild) November 9, 2020
The letter also draws attention to the case of Siddique Kappan who works for a Malayalam news portal and was on his way to cover the Hathras case on October 5, when he was arrested in Mathura. Booked under Section 17 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Siddique remains in jail and his family has not been allowed to meet him.
The letter calls upon the “Chief Minister of India’s largest state” to be well aware that “the important precedence which the state sets with regard to safeguarding all constitutional rights”.
“This is especially crucial with respect to preserving the space for free media, more so at a time when the world has been in the throes of a pandemic”, it reads.
The letter expresses a ‘keen’ desire to send a delegation of national editors to the state capital Lucknow, “to meet you and to work with your administration to explore ways that can create a protective environment for the media to work without fear or favour”.
