The FIRs against EGI IMPINGED ON FREE SPEECH. 3 JUDGE BENCH protects senior journalists. Next hearing on Monday !

The three judge bench of supreme Court comprising of CJI D. Y. Chandrachud, Justice J. B. Padrivala and Justice Manoj Mishra gave relief to the three senior journalists of EDITORS GUILD OF INDIA viz Seema Guha, Bharat Bhushan and Sanjay Kapoor keeping the next date of hearing for coming Monday.

The four members team of the Editors Guild of India including its president Seema Mustafa had visited Imphal and other areas of Manipur for four days from August 7 to August 10 meeting the representatives of 28 organisations including NGOs and people of different communities hearing their woes and plight after their displacement due to massive violence and ethnic clashes in various districts of Manipur .

An FIR was lodged against the fact finding team members of Editor Guild of India by Manipur police under 66 A and several other on serious charges for creating animosity by their visit in Manipur resulting in quite an uproar and furore in media circles with several media organisations and Press Club of India strongly condemning the Manipur government and police for being biased and vindictive against the EGI fact finding team and lodging an FIR amounting to smacking of the media freedom and free speech.

In a signed statement the president of PCI Umakant Lakhera and Secretary General Vinay Kumar while strongly condemning this action demanded forthwith withdrawal of the case terming it as a strong Arm tactics of the government to suppress media freedom and free speech especially when journalists are trying to expose lies and bring truth to the fore as happened in Manipur strife torn state. They termed this action as an arm tactics of the government against senior journalists who had been to a strife torn state to acquaint them of the ground realities.

The counsel for the EGI a senior supreme Court advocate Shyam Diwan while pleading their case in front of the three judge bench said that the FIRs lodged against them is nothing but clear infringement and Impingement of free speech and expression and mentioned the earlier Court directives to safeguard people, especially a woman advocate from arrest etc.

However the advocate appearing on behalf of the Manipur government namely junior Kanu Aggarwal said that though the state doesn’t have any objection to provide relief to the EGI members, senior journalists but they should have approached the state high court for relief as directed by court earlier. Similarly a junior advocate Luwang as per a TOI report criticized the EGI fact finding team for being biased against the Meitie journalists accusing them for one sided reporting adding that even the EGI of Manipur has criticised them. While hearing the matter initially the three judge bench of the apex court raised objection for approaching the SC instead of Manipur HC but later on agreed to given them relief from possible arrests fixing the date of next hearing for the coming Monday. The senior Supreme Court advocate Mr Shyam Diwan while arguing the case in favour of the EGI raised serious objection on CM of Manipur holding a press conference the next day and defending the FIR against the EGI accusing them for creating enmity among communities etc. This should not have happened said Shyam Diwan citing the CM accusing the senior journalists of fact finding team creating animosity among communities which was not true. The fact finding team blamed the Manipur and Meitie media for favouring the majority and deliberately writing against the Kukies becoming party to a pre strategic VILLIFICATION campaign against the security forces and Assam Rifles and the state government tacitly supporting them and their one sided campaign writes the TOI story of 7 September. The Fact Finding Team catagorically accused the saffron party government of Manipur for being partisan mentioning in their report that there is a Meitie government, Meitie police and Meitie bureaucracy in Imphal and the tribal people living in the strife torn state had no faith in them. The report also blamed the state government for banning internet services in order to give authenticity to the narratives of the state government led by the CM Biren Singh. It may be recalled that thousands of people had been displaced in the ethnic clashes amd massive violence between the majority Meitie and minority Kuki communities with colossal loss of thousands of crores with more than 1.5 lakh people displaced compelled to live in relief camps with their houses burnt and razed to ground.