November 9, 2020 8:20:45 pm
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. (Archive)
The Publishers Guild of India on Monday urged Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to address the issue of defending press freedom and the rights and safety of journalists working in the state.
“In the recent past, several incidents have come to light, raising deep concern in the space for free, fearless and independent journalism in Uttar Pradesh,” the Guild said in a letter to Adityanath.
In its letter, the Guild also mentioned the arrest of Republic TV editor Arnab Goswami in a case of suicidal complicity and said that the prime minister was “right to be quick to defend press freedom” there, but that “there are much more compelling cases. of intimidation, harassment by the authorities to the journalists in active of the UP, who were prevented from doing their work ”.
Adityanath had blamed Congress for the arrest of journalist Arnab Goswami. “The arrest of journalist Arnab Goswami ji is an attack on freedom of expression by the Congress party. Congress, which is in charge of imposing the emergency, is once again trying to strangle democracy, ”Adityanath had said in a tweet.
In its letter, the union also mentioned the cases of some journalists facing legal action in Uttar Pradesh, including that of Siddique Kappan, a Delhi-based journalist working for a Malayalam news portal Azhimukham, who was arrested while on his way to Hathras to report the rape of a Dalit girl and was later booked by UAPA.
The Guild also mentioned cases against Supriya Sharma, Executive Editor of Scroll; Ravindra Saxena, who reported on the mismanagement of a Maholi tehsil quarantine center in Sitapur, and was booked under the SC / ST Law and the Disaster Management Law; Vijay Vineet and Manish Mishra of the local Janadesh Times newspaper who were hired for showing images of children eating grass in the Varanasi district of Koiripur village and Asad Rizvi, an independent journalist from Lucknow, who was assaulted by police on October 2. , while reporting. on the protests in the city after the Hathras rape case.
Urging the prime minister to “release jailed journalists and withdraw cases under review,” the Guild also called on Adityanath to ensure the safety of journalists in the state.
The journalists’ body also said it is willing to send a delegation of national editors to Lucknow to meet with Adityanath and work with the Uttar Pradesh administration to create a protective environment for the media to work “without fear or favor” in the state.
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