The Press Club of India and the Indian Women Press Corps have expressed their deep concern over the lodging of the FIR against the senior journalist and chief editor of AAA media news channel Ajit Anjum who was daringly covering a series on Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar for his news channel highlighting various anomalies by the BLOs while carryout out the revision work and finally not coming under various pressures telecasting the transparent story on his channel. In a statement issued here the President of PCI Gautam Lahiri and Secretary General Neeraj Thakur has said that Ajit Anjum is a senior journalist with a long standing record with an impactful and responsible reporting. Standing in full solidarity with Ajit Anjum, the Press Club of India President and secretary general in the statement said that the PCI stands in solidarity with all journalists facing harassment or intimidation for their work and reaffirms its commitment to defend to write to report independently and fearlessly. Expressing their immense concern over the lodging of FIR against Ajit Anjum, the PCI and IWPC statement said that reporting facts is the primary and foremost responsibility and duty of any journalist and it certainly does not come under the category of ” Spreading Misinformation”.Instead of issuing clarification, the Bihar administration chose to take legal recourse, resulting in lodging of an FIR against Ajit Anjum raises serious questions about freedom of Press and mounting challenges to free expressions in a democratic setup said the PCI leaders. The statement concludes demanding : We call upon the relevant authorities to ensure that due process is followed and that the rights of Mr. Anjum as a journalist and a law abiding citizen are fully protected said the joint statement issued by PCI and IWPC.
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