For two days beginning on the evening of November 24, there was no news in Manipur – television channels went off air and newspapers ceased...
For two days beginning on the evening of November 24, there was no news in Manipur – television channels went off air and newspapers ceased publication. There were no editions of any of the dailies published out of the state on November 25 and 26.
Editors say they took this drastic step in protest after they were caught between two warring factions of a banned militant group. “One side did not want us to publish the other side’s news and there were threats to that effect,” said Bijoy Kakchingtabam, president of the All Manipur Working Journalists’ Union.
One group, two statements
It started out as a curiously bureaucratic tangle within the the United National Liberation Front, Manipur’s oldest secessionist Meitei outfit. On November 23, a statement issued by the group’s chairman went out to the local press. The contents of the statement were routine: a history of the group’s “revolution” and the ideology driving it, ahead of their “raising day” on November 24. The outfit had been founded that day in 1964.
What was unusual was the fact that the press statement was signed by the group’s chairperson. Usually, the United National Liberation Front’s press communiques are issued from the offices of its central committee. In fact, earlier...
