Editors Guild Slams MP Police for Humiliating Journalist in Police Station
Urges MHA to take immediate cognisance of police excesses against journalists and civil society members
GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 9th April. The Editors Guild of India on Friday ‘strongly condemned; 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, 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 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 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 Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister 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 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.
[pdfjs-viewer url=”https://www.globalgovernancenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/EGI-Statement_22.pdf” attachment_id=”66506″ viewer_width=100% viewer_height=800px fullscreen=true download=true print=true]
Comments are closed.