Attack on freedom of speech; withdraw FIRs

It is clear, govt wants political compliance

The filing of FIRs by the Uttar Pradesh police against news portal The Wire, three journalists and three politicians for circulation in social media of a video clip of the attack on an elderly Muslim man, Abdul Samad Saifi, by a mob in Ghaziabad is true to its recent tradition of harassing journalists to muzzle the media. An FIR has also been filed against Twitter on whose platform the video was shared. The incident happened on June 5, and the Muslim man has said that he was thrashed and made to chant "Jai Shriram". His beard was chopped. The police filed the FIRs, saying the videos were shared "to disrupt the peace and bring differences between the religious communities." The police have claimed that the dispute was personal and there was no communal angle to it. The case against Twitter is for not stopping the circulation of the video.

There are serious doubts about the police claims. The victim’s family has said the FIR filed by the police has ignored some key details in the complaint made by him. A Muslim man who went to help Saifi was also made an accused. The police are known to ignore or suppress inconvenient facts and angles in cases. The police was also selective in its FIRs against the news portal and others. A number of other news organisations reported the attack in much the same manner, and many people took it to social media. But the police filed FIRs selectively against The Wire and six others. This raises questions about the bona fides of the police action and its credibility. It shows reporting or tweeting on events can be risky and invite police action, especially if they vary from the police version.

The police action can only be taken as intended for intimidation and harassment of the journalists and the activists and to send a warning to others. This is part of the now entrenched policy of suppressing dissent and punishing critics. Journalists report events as they develop, and to act against them for a part of the report or on the basis of what they report at a particular stage is wrong. To harass them for their reporting is an attack on freedom of speech, and so the FIRs should be withdrawn immediately. Twitter has also been implicated in the case after it lost its legal indemnity in India for non-compliance with the new IT rules. IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has issued a warning to it, and it is clear that what the government wants is not legal, but political, compliance.