Editors Guild Demands Withdrawal Of FIRs Against Rajdeep Sardesai, Mrinal Pandey And Others

Editors Guild Demands Withdrawal Of FIR: The Editors Guild of India (EGI) in a statement by Seema Mustafa, president, and Sanjay Kapoor, general secretary, has demanded that the complaints against senior editors and noted journalists must be “withdrawn immediately" and the media should be "allowed to report without fear.”

The EGI has condemned Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh governments for filing FIRs against eight people, including journalists Rajdeep Sardesai, Mrinal Pandey, Zafar Agha, editors of The Caravan, and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, for reporting on the farmers’ rally in Delhi on January 26.

The Editors Guild of India condemns the intimidating manner in which UP and MP police have registered FIRs against senior journalists, for reporting on farmers’ protests in Delhi on Jan 26. EGI finds these FIRs as an attempt to intimidate, harass, and stifle free media. pic.twitter.com/Mf3albnYvs

— Editors Guild of India (@IndEditorsGuild) January 29, 2021

“One person, 45-year-old Navneet killed allegedly in police firing at ITO. Farmers tell me: the ‘sacrifice’ will not go in vain.” Sardesai had tweeted which he later retracted. Later he tweeted, and quoted reports saying that the protestor’s death may have been caused by an overturned vehicle. 

The Noida Police on Thursday filed multiple cases against six journalists. The FIRs claimed that the journalists have been booked for "breaking edition laws, promoting communal disharmony, and insulting religious beliefs, is further disturbing."

Calling it an attempt to “intimidate, harass and stifle” the media, the Guild said that the journalists should not be targeted for reporting from their personal social media handles. 

"The FIRs allege that the tweets were intentionally malicious and were the reason for the desecration of the Red Fort. Nothing can be further from truth," the Editors Guild of India said.

“...the fact that several laws such as a sedition are often used to impede freedom of speech, and issue guidelines to ensure that wanton use of such laws does not serve as a deterrent to a free press,” said the Guild.

“It must be noted that on the day of the protest and high action, several reports were emerging from eyewitnesses on the ground as well as from police, and therefore it was only natural for journalists to report all the details as they emerged. This is in line with established norms of journalistic practice,” the Guild said.