Editors Guild moves SC as Manipur books its journalists

Supreme Court agrees to hear plea of Editors Guild of India (EGI) facing risk of arrest from Manipur State.

The Supreme Court on September 6, 2023, agreed to hear a plea of the Editors Guild of India (EGI), whose Manipur fact-finding team is facing the risk of arrest from the State.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan made an urgent mention before the Chief Justice of India on behalf of the EGI. He submitted that the senior editors and journalists, who were part of a fact-finding team that reported on “bias” in the local news reports in Manipur, are facing the risk of arrest and coercive action. Mr. Divan sought protection of the court.

Chief Justice Chandrachud, after consulting with his Associate Judges on the Bench, told Mr. Divan to keep the papers of the case ready for taking up shortly today.

The Manipur police have registered a case against the Editors Guild of India (EGI) for allegedly promoting enmity between different groups, under Sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), after the latter published a report on media’s reportage of the ethnic violence in Manipur on September 2.

Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh also confirmed that his government had filed a First Information Report (FIR) against the president and three members of the EGI and accused them of trying to provoke clashes in the State.

Besides EGI President Seema Mustafa, those who were booked are three senior journalists — Seema Guha, Bharat Bhushan and Sanjay Kapoor — who visited the State between August 7 and 10 to study media reportage on the ethnic violence.

The EGI report stated that there is extreme pressure on journalists whether Meitei or tribal, to reflect the dominant view of their ethnic societies and the situation was made more difficult with the ban on the Internet, that is an essential tool of modern journalism.