By The Editors association of Asian country on Friday powerfully condemned the “intimidating manner” within which many journalists are targeted for reportage and spreading data on the farmer’s tractor rally and also the succeeding violence on Republic Day within the metropolis.
Calling it an effort to “intimidate, harass and stifle” the media, the association in an exceedingly statement demanded that the complaints be “withdrawn straightaway and also the media be allowed to report without concern.”
Multiple FIRs are filed in state and Madhya Pradesh against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and a number of other journalists, as well as Asian country Today’s Rajdeep Sardesai, National Herald’s Mrinal Pandey, Zafar Aga of Qaumi Awaz, and also the Caravan’s Anant Nath and Vinod Jose for his or her tweets and reportage on the Republic Day violence.
Reacting to the cases lodged against Rajdeep Sardesai, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee aforementioned that she is shocked however most within the media are silent on the problem. “In our democratic system we have a tendency to should raise our voice. The media is a very important pillar of our democracy ,” she aforementioned in an exceedingly tweet.
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Calling the targeting of journalists AN attack on the democratic values that the country stands for, the association any aforementioned that the journalists are specifically targeted for reportage the accounts touching on the death of 1 of the protesters on their personal social media handles also as those of the publications they lead and represent.
“It should be noted that on the day of the protest and high action, many reports were rising from eyewitnesses on the bottom also as from police, and so it absolutely was solely natural for journalists to report all the small print as they emerged. this is often in line with established norms of print media follow,” the association aforementioned.
The FIRs claimed that the tweets were deliberately malicious and so compete a task in triggering violence at the Red Fort on26th jan. “The complaints are reserved for breaking edition laws, promoting communal dissonance, and insulting spiritual beliefs, is any heavy,” it said.
The association conjointly urged the judiciary to require serious cognizance of the very fact that many laws like a infraction area unit typically wont to “impede freedom of speech,” and issue tips to make sure that “wanton use of such laws doesn’t function a deterrent to a free press”.
