Manipur: Press body decries FIRs against EGI fact-finding members

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By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, September 4: In the wake of the Manipur Police registering FIRs against three members of the fact-finding committee of the Editors’ Guild of India, Press Club of India has decried the action, alleging “strong arm tactic of the state against media”.

The Manipur Police lodged FIRs against three members of the panel – Seema Guha, Bharat Bhushan and Sanjay Kapoor. They had gone to investigate an allegation that the local media in the state had been reporting the incidents of violence in partisan manner. The Manipur Police also fired an FIR against Editors’ Guild of India president Seema Mustafa.

“Press Club of India strongly condemns 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. The police have registers FIR under sections 153-A, 200, 295, 298, 505 (1)(6), 505(2), 499 and 120-B of the IPC, as well as Section 66A of the Information and Technology Act even though the provision has been struck down by the Supreme Court,” said the PCI in an official statement.

The PCI president, Umakant Lakhera, said that the “entire issue revolves around the role of the media, and it is evident that the Editor’s Guild did a commendable job by sending a fact finding team to check the ground situation and information which are being suppressed”.

Lakhera charged that “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.”

The PCI president also said that “it is a case of shooting the messenger rather than taking measures to restore peace in the state. We demand that the FIR against EGI President and the three members be withdrawn immediately.”

Editors’ Guild of India has not yet issued any statement. The complaint was made in Manipur by a social worker who had pointed out a wrong caption in a photograph to claim that the report of the committee was false.