New Delhi: The Editors Guild of India Friday issued a ‘strong’ condemnation against the alleged detention and assault of eight people, including a local journalist, after they were arrested for allegedly protesting and sloganeering against state Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and other BJP leaders.
A photograph of the purported incident was widely circulated on social media. The image was taken on 2 April and shows a few semi-nude men standing together inside what appears to be a police station.
In its statement, the Editors Guild noted that the “increasing tendency of the police and local administration to brazenly attack and intimidate journalists is extremely disturbing and needs to be checked”.
“The inhumane manner in which journalists, stringers, and district reporters are often treated by the police, in an effort to suppress any independent reporting is a matter of grave concern,” it said.
Read the full statement here:
The Editors Guild of India is shocked and outraged by the manner in which the police of Sidhi district, Madhya Pradesh, arrested, stripped, and humiliated a local journalist as well as some members of the civil society, on April 2, 2022, in retaliation against protest and associated news coverage of arrest of another member of civil society. Kanishk Tewari, a local reporter was covering the protest against the arrest of a theatre artist who had allegedly made some indecent remarks against a Bhartiya Janata Party MLA and his son.
Further shockingly, the police shot pictures of the journalist and activists and released them on social media in order to shame and humiliate them.
Though the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, has suspended the cops and ordered an inquiry into this horrendous case, but this increasing tendency of the police and local administration to brazenly attack and intimidate journalists is extremely disturbing and needs to be checked.
In another incident in Odisha on April 7, police in the Balasore district chained a journalist’s leg to a hospital bed after an alleged case of assault. The journalist Loknath Delai though has claimed that he was arrested in response to his reporting of corruption by the police and various irregularities in their affairs.
The inhumane manner in which journalists, stringers, and district reporters are often treated by the police, in an effort to suppress any independent reporting is a matter of grave concern.
The Editors Guild of India urges the Union Home Ministry to take immediate cognisance of police excesses against journalists and civil society members, and issue stern directions to all levels of law enforcement agencies to respect democratic values and freedom of press. At the same time strict action needs to be taken against those who misuse state power.
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