NEW DELHI: The Editors Guild of India (EGI) on Friday demanded that the FIR lodged by the Uttar Pradesh Police against a news portal and some journalists for circulating a video clip of an elderly Muslim man on social media be withdrawn immediately.
It said “this wanton use of the law” to criminalise reporting and dissent to harass independent media was condemnable.
“The EGI condemns the filing of the FIRs by the Uttar Pradesh government against The Wire and several journalists, for their tweets on an assault on an elderly Muslim man in Ghaziabad on June 5,” the EGI said in a statement.
It demanded that the FIRs be withdrawn immediately.
The Uttar Pradesh Police on Tuesday had filed a first information report (FIR) against Twitter Inc, Twitter Communications India, news portal The Wire, scribes Mohammad Zubair and Rana Ayyub and senior journalist and author Saba Naqvi as well as Congress leaders Salman Nizami, Masqoor Usmani and Sama Mohammad for sharing on social media a video clip in which an elderly Muslim says he was thrashed by some people and forced to chant “Jai Sri Ram”.
—PTI

Press Trust of India