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Media

ed, arbitrary and amounts to an authoritarian
misuse of laws the apex body of editors the
Editors Guild of India, expressed shock over
the happenings in Uttar Pradesh. “The Guild
sees it as an effort to intimidate the press, and
stifle freedom of expression,” said a statement
issued by its President Shekhar Gupta, Secre-
tary General Ashok Bhattacharya and Treasure
Sheela Bhatt.
“The FIR is based on the journalist for
sharing and mocking on Twitter the video of
a woman claiming a “relationship” with the
chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. The television
channel had broadcast a video on the same
issue. Whatever the accuracy of the woman’s
claims, to register a case of criminal defama-
tion against the journalists for sharing it on the
social media and airing it on a television chan-
nel is a brazen misuse of law. To give the police
powers to arrest, provisions of Section 66 of the
IT Act have also been added. As with a recent
case in Karnataka that the Guild spoke about,
the FIR in this case is also not filed by the per-
son allegedly affected but suo motu by the po-
lice. This is a condemnable misuse of law and
state power,” statement asserted. The protesters belonged to the Editors Guild In media circles unexpected sup-
The Editors Guild of India also reiterates its of India, the Press Club of India, the Indian port poured in on tweeter trending with
demand that the defamation law should be de- Women Press Corps, the South Asian Wom- hash tag “#ReleasePrashantKanojia,”
criminalised. The misuse of law in this specific en in the Media, the Press Association and “#StopShootingMessenger.”
case, as in Karnataka earlier, goes way beyond independent journalists and activists. They “Today, journalists can get arrested for us-
criminal defamation as many IT Act and In- were stopped meters away from Parliament ing humour and irony in a social media post.
dian Penal Code provisions have been invoked House. The protest was also joined by Mr. This incident is a direct attack on freedom
in what looks like a motivated and vindictive Kanojia’s wife, Jagisha Arora, 26. of expression,” commented eminent editor
action. “My husband merely put out a tweet of a Siddharth Varadarajan, founding editor of
In national capital, Delhi Journalists video, which was shared by others. Why har- news portal The Wire. “Kanojia had served
staged joint protest against arrests and took ass only one person and, that too, using un- for around two years at our organisation (The
out a march up to Parliament from the Press constitutional means. I have been told that Wire) before moving on to a new job earlier
Club of India. The call of Joint protest was the Uttar Pradesh police have been misbe- this year,” he added.
collectively given by Editors Guild, Press having with Prashant, and they aren’t ready Senior journalist Neerja Chowdhury,
Club of India, Indian Women Press Corps to give us any reply. Today, it is Prashant; to- who took part in the protest too, also
demanding the immediate release of free- morrow, it could be anyone,” she said. alleged that the arrest of the three persons
lance journalist Prashant Kanojia and Na- She said her husband had gone to buy amounted to an attack on the freedom of ex-
tion Live journalists Anuj Shukla and Ishika grocery and returned with two men. He told pression. Activist Shabnam Hashmi also de-
Singh. Wearing black arm bands and hold- her that they belonged to the Uttar Pradesh manded immediate dropping of the charges
ing placards, the journalists marched from police, who were taking him away for his against Kanojia, Singh and Shukla and sought
the Press Club of India to Parliament, raising tweet. The couple got married only nine their release.
slogans against the Adityanath government. months ago and were living in east Delhi. letters@tehelka.com

tehelka / 30 june 2019 25 www.tehelka.com