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Home / India / ‘Harassment’ of journalists: Global press bodies write to PM Modi

‘Harassment’ of journalists:
Global press bodies write to PM
Modi
“As many as 55 journalists were targeted for covering the pandemic in India
between 25 March, when lockdown was first imposed, and 31 May, a report
by Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) has shown,” they stated.

By: Express News Service | New Delhi | Updated: October 22, 2020 7:17:17 am
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi (DD/PTI Photo)

Two international press associations have written a joint letter to Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and urged him to take “immediate steps to ensure that journalists
can work without harassment and fear of reprisal”.

In their letter, written on Tuesday, the Austria-headquartered International Press

Institute (IPI) and Belgium-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) also
asked Modi to “direct the state governments to drop all charges against journalists,
including those under the draconian sedition laws, that have been imposed on
them for their work”.

“The number of cases filed against journalists have increased enormously after the
spread of the pandemic,” the letter stated. The “health crisis [pandemic] is being
used as an excuse to silence those who have exposed shortcoming in the
government’s response to it… A free media is essential to a successful public health
response.”

They wrote, “The use of sedition laws to harass independent, critical journalists is
not only a gross violation of the country’s international commitments, it is also an
attempt by the government to silence any criticism. Journalistic work cannot be
equated to sedition or undermining security.”
“As many as 55 journalists were targeted for covering the pandemic in India
between 25 March, when lockdown was first imposed, and 31 May, a report by
EXPLAINED
Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) has shown,” they stated.
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have discove
Meanwhile, in a statement issued Wednesday, the Editors Guild of India criticised
Delhi Police for a “brazen attack…on a journalist [Ahan Penkar] of The Caravan
magazine while he was carrying out his duty as a member of the press”.

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