New Delhi, November 9, 2021: The Editors Guild of India and opposition parties in Tripura slammed the state police for booking journalists and activists under the black law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for their social media posts on communal violence that took place in Tripura in October.Reports said that police have opened an investigation against 102 social media accounts including 68 Twitter handles, 32 Facebook pages and two YouTube channels of journalists, activists, rights groups and community leaders under different sections of Indian Penal Code including the draconian law UAPA, an anti-terror law, on the alleged charges of promoting hatred among communities through social media posts.
Tripura witnessed a spate of ant-Muslim violence by Hindutva parties for more than a week in late October, attacking mosques and Muslim properties.
Tripura Police have registered a case under the draconian UAPA against Mukesh of PUCL and Indori of NCHRO on Wednesday and notices, under Section 41 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), were sent to both lawyers.
The Editors Guild said the cases against journalists under the UAPA was an extremely disturbing trend.
“Such a harsh law, wherein the processes of investigation and bail applications are extremely rigorous and overbearing, is being used for merely reporting on and protesting against communal violence,” the Guild said.
It said that police cannot use UAPA against journalists to suppress reporting. The body also urged the Supreme Court to restrain police from using the UAPA against journalists. “Issue stringent guidelines on charging journalists under them, so that these laws don’t become an easy tool for suppressing press freedom,” the Editors Guild said.
Meanwhile, the Tripura unit of Congress demanded withdrawal of cases filed against journalists and activists. “The mosque at Panisagar was attacked by Hindutva activists of VHP and houses of minority communities were vandalized by them. They should be arrested first. I do not think the lawyers, who visited the state, came with any bad intentions and spread any communal hatred. Government should immediately withdraw charges against them,” state Congress chief Birajit Sinha told PTI.
CPI(M), On the other hand, said that cases under the UAPA against activists and journalists is an act of intolerance. “If they had done any illegal activity then normal law was enough to take actions against them,” the party which is in opposition in the state said in a statement.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has questioned the misuse of the draconian law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against journalists and activists by police for their social media posts on communal violence that took place in Tripura in October. Rahul Gandhi in a Twittee slammed the BJP government for “shooting the messenger” said that use of hashtag #Tripura_Is_Burning was “a call for corrective action”.
“Truth can’t be silenced by #UAPA,” he said.
The hashtag was first used by journalist Shyam Meera Singh in a tweet in response to the anti-Muslim violence by Hindutva groups in Tripura in late October.
On Saturday, his Twitter handle was among 102 social media handles against which Tripura Police have registered a case under the UAPA for posting content that police said “promoted hatred among communities”.
The case under UAPA sparked outrage as people are saying that the police were trying to silence voices seeking accountability instead of taking action against culprits.
Tripura witnessed a spate of ant-Muslim violence by Hindutva fascist parties like BJP, RSS, VHP etc for more than a week in late October, attacking mosques and Muslim properties.
Meanwhile, a day after the Editors Guild condemned the Tripura Police, Indian Women’s Press Corps also came out in defence of journalists.
In a statement Indian Women’s Press Corps expressed shock and dismay at the case against Singh and other journalists. “It is a journalist’s job to inform, to highlight and present a true picture of the events. It is not the journalist’s job to please people in power,” IWPC said in the statement, demanding that the cases be withdrawn and let the journalists work freely. agencies