NEW DELHI/IMPHAL, 13 Oct: The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) on Friday said that it joins its affiliate, the All Manipur Working Journalists’ Union (AMWJU), in “strongly condemning the conduct of the combined troops of the 20 Jat Regiment and the 5/4 GR, preventing media persons from covering an incident of attack on Sabungkhok Khunou village.”
The unions have demanded that the security forces allow the media to carry out their duties without obstruction, “which is vital to any democratic society.”
According to the AMWJU and the Editors’ Guild of Manipur, the incident took place on 12 October, and the Jat Regiment personnel not only prevented a media team consisting of reporters from ISTV, Impact TV, Tom TV and ISCom from covering the incident, but forced them to delete whatever footage was there in their mobiles. Another team of media, consisting of Tom TV and Impact TV on the other side of the area were also initially prevented from taking any footage of the incident. Further, both unions have decided to submit a memorandum each to Unified Command Chairman Kuldiep Singh and Governor Anusuiya Uikey to look into the series of attacks on the media since 3 May, and to take appropriate action.
In a statement, IJU President Geetartha Pathak and IJU Secretary-General Sabina Inderjit said that “stopping or targetting journalists from carrying out their duties of informing the public amounts to muzzling the press.”
“The media in Manipur is working under very difficult conditions,” they said, and appealed to the security forces and the police to not prevent journalists but instead aid them in disseminating news, “as people have the right to information and know what’s happening in their area or elsewhere in the country.”
At the same time, the IJU urged media persons to be “careful, show restraint if necessary, by abiding with the norms of journalistic conduct as set by the Press Council of India in covering news during ethnic and communal clashes between two groups.”
