Multiple press bodies have demanded the withdrawal of cases against journalists and news website The Wire , after the police in Uttar Prad...
Multiple press bodies have demanded the withdrawal of cases against journalists and news website The Wire, after the police in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad district on Wednesday named them in a case related to the assault of an elderly Muslim man.
Apart from The Wire, journalists Rana Ayyub and Mohammed Zubair have been named in the First Information Report, which alleges that the accused did not verify their tweets on the incident and thereby gave a “communal angle” to it. Writer Saba Naqvi, social media platform Twitter and three Congress leaders are also among the accused.
They have been booked under Sections 153 (provocation for rioting), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 295A (acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 505 (mischief), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
In a statement on the matter, the Committee to Protect Journalists demanded that the cases be dropped immediately.
“Indian authorities singling out journalists, some of whom are known for critical coverage of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, for sharing and commenting on a video looks suspiciously like selective law enforcement and amounts to a serious attack on press freedom,” said Steven Butler, the body’s Asia program coordinator.
Authorities in #India’s state of #UttarPradesh must immediately withdraw the criminal investigation into journalists Rana Ayyub, Saba Naqvi, and Mohammed
Zubair, and...
