NEW DELHI, Aug 6: The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) has condemned the registering of an FIR by the Sahranpur police, on the basis of a complaint from the Uttar Pradesh CMO, against Sankalp Neb, a local journalist, for sharing a screenshot of a Twitter post in a WhatsApp group.
The Twitter post alleged that the reports of Covid-19 negative patients were being turned into positive under a conspiracy with the help of private hospitals.
“Booking journalists for their critical reporting is nothing but violation of media freedom. In this particular case, Neb was just sharing a post of another person. Interestingly, the police did not file FIR or CMO lodged any complaint against the person who tweeted the impugned post. Registering FIR against journalists for their critical reports instead of issuing clarifications has become a weapon of harassment and pressure tactics against journalists in the country,” said IJU president Geetartha Pathak and IJU secretary-general Sabina Inderjit.
“The IJU is surprised to see frequent attacks on journalists and harassment by the authorities in UP,” they said, and demanded immediate withdrawal of the FIR registered against Neb.
