The Editors Guild of India has condemned the arrests of a freelance journalist and the head and editor of a television channel by the Uttar Pradesh government.
Prashant Kanojia has been accused of uploading an “objectionable” post on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on a social media site. Nation Live head Ishita Singh and editor Anuj Shukla have been accused of airing a video on him.
“The police action is high-handed and arbitrary, and amounts to an authoritarian misuse of laws. The Guild sees it as an effort to intimidate the press and stifle freedom of expression,” it said in a statement.
The FIR is based on the journalist tweeting the video of a woman claiming a “relationship” with the Chief Minister. The channel broadcast the video.
“Whatever the accuracy of the woman’s claims, to register a case of criminal defamation against the journalists for sharing it on the social media and airing it on a television channel is a brazen misuse of law,” the Guild said.
It pointed out that the Uttar Pradesh police filed the case suo motu. “This is a condemnable misuse of law and state power.”
The Guild reiterated its demand that defamation be decriminalised.
The other media organisations have also condemned the arrests.
According to his wife, the sole witness to his arrest, the police whisked him away without giving her an opportunity to talk to him.
“The action taken by the Uttar Pradesh police against these three journalists is a clear case of administrative overreach, and excessive in proportion by way of application of law,” said a statement issued by the Indian Women’s Press Corps, the Press Club of India, the South Asian Women in the Media (SAWM, India) and the Press Association.
The Network of women in Media said the arrests demonstrated the lack of political will to create a climate for free expression and tolerance of dissenting views. “Equating criticism of the Chief Minister with disturbing law and order is contrary to freedom of expression in a democracy,” it said.