PRESS CLUB OF INDIA AND PRESS ASSOCIATION ( BODY OF ACCREDITED JOURNALISTS) STRONGLY CONDEMN the high-handedness of Uttarakhand authorities in issuing a “legal notice” to senior independent journalist

The Press Club of India strongly condemns the high-handedness of Uttarakhand
authorities in issuing a “legal notice” to senior independent journalist Ajit Rathi
and sending police personnel to his residence to allegedly threaten his family
members.

In a statement issued in New Delhi on Saturday the signatories to the statement Gautam Lahiri, president and secretary general, Neeraj Thakur said that all this was done merely because Rathi had asked the state government as to why a piece of prime land, already allotted for the establishment of an IT Park, has been handed over on 90-year lease to private builders.Following this, the State Infrastructure and Industrial Development Corporation
of Uttarakhand Limited (SIDCUL) issued a legal notice to the journalist.

A posse of policemen also raided his residence and threatened his family members with
dire consequences. Taking strong exception to this stand the largest organisation of the senior journalists in Delhi Press Club of India said that such actions by the Uttarakhand government stems from authoritarian tendencies aimed at stifling democratic discourse and preventing journalists from discharging their duty to report facts.

The Press Club of India demanded that the state authorities stop such acts of
harassment forthwith and appealed to all democratic-minded people to stand
united and thwart such non democratic actions meant to threaten the media.

Meanwhile another media outfit, an organisation representing journalists accredited by the central government, The Press Association also condemned this action against the journalist in Uttarakhand amounting to the stifling of voice of free expression saying that the issuance of the notice unambiguously amount to an assault on press freedom and therefore gagging the media.