The Bharatiya Janata Party government led by Chief Minister N Biren Singh in Manipur state of India has filed a case against the president and three members of the Editors Guild of India (EGI) on their facts-based report on violence in the state.
In a report published last week, the EGI had criticized the Indian media outlets for reporting only the government version of events in the violence-hit Manipur and slammed the Internet ban as being detrimental to press reporting and claimed there were indications that the state leadership had turned partisan during the conflict period.
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 violence.
Meanwhile, the Press Club of India joined a number of bodies in condemning the filing of the case against the EGI.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh addressing a press conference in Imphal said at a time when many persons had been killed and left homeless, the EGI published a “totally one-sided” report without understanding the complexity of the crisis in Manipur.
The United Nations’ rights experts on Monday condemned the Indian government’s “slow and inadequate response” to the alleged rights violations.
“We have serious concerns about the apparent slow and inadequate response by the Government of India, including law enforcement, to stem physical and sexual violence and hate speech in Manipur,” the experts, including the Special Rapporteurs on violence against women and girls and on torture, said in a statement.
Modi broke his 79-day silence on Manipur violence in July after a video showing two tribal women being paraded naked caused a global outcry. He promised the guilty will not be spared.
“What has happened to the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven,” he said on July 20.
But opposition parties have accused the prime minister of doing too little, too late. They have also accused the Hindu nationalist BJP of stalling a debate on Manipur in parliament, where they demanded a statement by Modi.
The EGI in its fact-finding report released on Saturday said the Manipur media seemed to have turned into a “Meitei media” amid the conflict as it referred to the allegedly biased reporting in favour of the dominant ethnic group.
The editors’ body said its report, which collected facts between August 7 and August 10, was based on representations made by several parties, including the Indian army about “the uneven and biased reportage of the ethnic clashes in Manipur by the local and national media”. —KMS
