The Editors Guild of India has issued a statement in the context of some disturbing developments as far as the domain of journalism is concerned in India. The Guild said that there is “a growing pattern of misuse of criminal laws to intimidate journalists” in different parts of the country, which is deeply disturbing.
The Editors Guild issued this statement on Wednesday and cited several recent incidences which it pointed were against the ethos of free and independent journalism. In its statement it cited a recent episode concerning editor and owner of a Gujarati news portal Face of Nation, Dhaval Patel who was booked for sedition and had been detained by the police on the 11th of May. The second incident that had been cited by the Editors Guild was that of The Indian Express who was sent a notice by the Delhi Police on 10th May
The Guild said “The government and the police must recognise that the media is an integral part of the governance structure in any democracy. The Guild condemns these actions and asks the state and central governments to desist from misusing the law to threaten the free press.”
Gujarati news portal editor Patel had been booked for publishing a report on his portal regarding the possibilities for a leadership change in Gujarat due to criticism over the rapid increase in the number of coronavirus cases in the state. He was charged with sedition for publishing this point under Section 124 A of the Indian Penal Code and for spreading false panic under Section 54 of the Disaster Management Act.
The Guild underlined that this was the misuse of special laws besides sedition and IPC. The Guild also went ahead and condemned the action taken by the Delhi Police agains the City Editor and Chief Reporter of The Indian Express, which had asked them to join a probe and police investigations related to the possibility of an audio clip of Tablighi Jamaat leader, Maulana Saad being doctored.
They were asked to join the probe and were threatened that if they failed to join the probe there could be legal action against them under the IPC. This was seen by the Guild as a measure to extract the journalist’s source and thus warn other reporters.
