The Commonwealth Journalists Association (CJA) on Monday urged the Indian government to honour its international commitments to the Commonwealth and the United Nations and ensure that the media is free to play its constitutional role as a guardian of the public interest and in holding elected governments to account. The CJA, a 43-year-old organisation advocating press freedom, called on the relevant authorities to withdraw the First Information Reports (FIRs) issued against leading editors and journalists for their coverage of the farmers protest in Delhi on January 26. The CJA is particularly alarmed at the use of laws pertaining to sedition and criminal conspiracy against journalists who were simply doing their job, reporting events as they happened. Many of these laws are of colonial origin and in urgent need of reform, reads the CJA statement.
New Delhi: The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) strongly condemned Monday the registration of FIRs against senior editors and journalists over the coverage of the farmers’ protest and the ensuing violence on Republic Day here. The NBA demanded that the FIRs be quashed.
Six journalists – Mrinal Pande, Rajdeep Sardesai, Vinod Jose, Zafar Agha, Paresh Nath and Anant Nath – along with Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, have been booked by police. They have been booked in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, over their alleged ‘misleading’ tweets on the violence during the farmers’ tractor rally.
In a statement, the said it is of the opinion that both the print and electronic media have been covering the farmers’ protests on the outskirts of Delhi in a fair, balanced and objective manner.