The Press Club of India has strongly condemned lodging of filing a police case against three members of a fact finding committee of the Editors Guild of India and its President on the media coverage of the ethnic clashes and violence in Manipur.
In a press statement issued on Monday, PCI demanded that the FIR against EGI President and the three members be withdrawn immediately.
The Press Council of India stated that the police have invoked Section 66A of the Information and Technology Act even though the provision has been struck down by the Supreme Court. On multiple occasions, the apex court has directed that nobody should be prosecuted under the provision, it stated.
PCI added that the entire issue revolves around the role of the media and it is evident that the Editors’ guild did a commendable job by sending a fact finding team to check the ground situation and information which are being suppressed.
PCI said: “This is a strong arm tactic by the state government which amounts to intimidation of the apex media body of the country.”
At a time when violence-marred Manipur needs utmost attention of the government, such a move by the state government would only make the matters worse and would be seen as a deliberate attempt to suppress the truth, PCI stated while adding that it was a case of shooting the messenger rather than taking measures to restore peace in the state.
It may be mentioned that the committee in its detail report of the violence in Manipur has stated that media in manipur wrote one sided report and also mentioned several other of its observation.
Reacting to the contents of the Fact-finding team report, the All Manipur Working Journalists Union and Editors Guild Manipur have threatened to take legal action against the Editors Guild of India fact finding team if it doesn’t issue a clarification on the alleged misrepresentations in its fact finding report.
A police case has also been filed against the committee over allegations that the report submitted by the team was “false, fabricated and sponsored”.
