The Editors Guild of India on Sunday condemned the arrests of journalists Prashant Kanojia, Ishita Singh and Anuj Shukla for criticising Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, saying the action is "high-handed, arbitrary and amounts to authoritarian misuse of laws".
Noida-based journalist Kanojia was arrested by the UP Police for uploading a post on social media while Nation Live editors Singh and Shukla were held for airing a video on the chief minister.
In a statement, the Guild said, "the police action is "high-handed, arbitrary and amounts to authoritarian misuse of laws. The Guild sees it as an effort to intimidate the press and stifle freedom of expression."
It said the FIR is based on the journalist sharing the video of a woman claiming relationship with the Chief Minister on Twitter and the news channel had broadcast a video on the same issue.
"Whatever the accuracy of the woman's claims, to register a case of criminal defamation against the journalists for sharing it on the social media and airing it on a TV channel is a brazen misuse of the law. To give the police powers to arrest, provisions of Section 66 of the Information and Technology Act have also been added," the statement said.
It noted as with a recent case in Karnataka that the Guild spoke about, the FIR, in this case, is also not filed by the person allegedly affected but suo motu by the police. "This is condmenable misuse of law and state power," it said.
On its part, Congress also condemned the arrests calling it "illegal and arbitrary".
"The detention of Prashant Kanojia for merely posting a video which fell foul of actors of State government is illegal, arbitrary and a grave miscarriage of justice. Would request the Allahabad High Court to take suo Motu cognizance of the matter," Congress spokesperson Singhvi said on Twitter.