Calling it a ‘travesty of democratic norms’, the Editors Guild of India on Tuesday demanded that the government take urgent steps to investigate the online harassment of women journalists.
The Guild’s intervention follows the online 'auction' of Muslim women and news reports of an application Tek Fog which steals unused WhatsApp accounts to send toxic messages to journalists.
The Guild also demanded that the Supreme Court take cognisance of the matter and order an online probe. It said that the continued harassment was part of efforts to silence vocal journalists and intimidate them.
“The Editors Guild of India condemns the continuing online harassment of women journalists, which includes targeted and organised online trolling as well as threats of sexual abuse. What is further disturbing is that most of these attacks are targeted at journalists who have been outspokenly critical of the current government and the ruling party,” the Guild’s statement read. It was signed by Guild president Seema Mustafa, general secretary Sanjay Kapoor, and treasurer Anant Nath.
The Guild mentioned an article in The Wire which reported “an extensive and well-funded network” built around the Tek Fog app.
“The purpose of these deeply hurtful messages was to instil fear in them and to prevent them from expressing themselves freely and go about their jobs. According to the reports, several women journalists were subjected to thousands of abusive tweets,” read the statement.
The Guild also mentioned the earlier instances of online ‘auctions’ of Muslim women on open source apps on GitHub that targeted journalists critical of the government.
“Though law enforcement agencies have arrested those supposedly behind such apps, there is need for further investigation in order to ensure that all those behind such despicable acts, even beyond those arrested, are brought to justice,” the Guild said.
It demanded that the government take “urgent” steps to dismantle the “misogynistic and abusive digital eco-system”, and carry out investigations to identify and punish the culprits behind it.
“Further, given the allegations that there may be the involvement of influential people linked to the ruling party with the app Tek Fog, the Guild demands that the Supreme Court of India takes cognisance of the matter and order a probe into it,” the Guild said.
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