IPI voices concern over abuse of laws to harass journalists

The International Press Institute (IPI) on Friday expressed grave concern over the misuse of the law by authorities in India to intimidate journalists and curtail press freedom.

The statement by the Vienna-headquartered, a global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists, came after sedition cases were filed against the owner ad editor of a Gujarati news portal and a Delhi-based journalist was threatened with penal action for a report on Tablighi Jamaat leader Maulana Saad Kandhalvi.

The Editors Guild of India and the Press Club of India had condemned the action against the journalists

and urged the governments to stop using legal tools to harass the press.

The Guild called these instances “deeply disturbing” and condemned the “growing pattern of misuse of criminal laws.”

The Press Club of India also criticized the police, saying that their actions were “an affront to every canon of independent and responsible journalism”.

“The rapid decline in India’s press freedom is alarming,” IPI Director of Advocacy Ravi R Prasad said.

“A democracy like India can only thrive if media pluralism is allowed to flourish, but the government appears to have no tolerance for criticism and fears objective, independent journalism,” he said.