2 Men In Plain Clothes Took Him: Wife Of Journalist Arrested By UP Cops // Journalists Arrest Sounds Death Knell For Free Speech Under BJP 2.0

By Dilip -
It was a phone call from a friend that woke up Delhi-based journalist Prashant Kanojia and his wife on Saturday morning. The friend told him that some men were looking out for Prashant Kanojia by his name. Some time later in the noon, Mr Kanojia was taken away for questioning by two men in plain clothes, his wife Jagisha Arora told NDTV. "I don't have much clarity myself. It all happened in five minutes or so. Prashant had gone downstairs. When he came back, he said he has to change his clothes as he has to go with the two men," Ms Arora said.

A freelance journalist, Mr Kanojia was arrested by Uttar Pradesh police after he was picked up from his home in Delhi's West Vinod Nagar on Saturday for a tweet that had "objectionable comments" on Yogi Adityanath. The 26-year-old journalist was arrested after a complaint by a sub-inspector in Lucknow's Hazratganj Police Station on Friday night, alleging he tried to "malign" the Chief Minister's image. Mr Kanojia had shared a video on Twitter and Facebook where a woman is seen speaking to reporters of various media organisations outside Yogi Adityanath's office, claiming that she had sent him a marriage proposal. He is currently lodged in Lucknow Jail... read more:
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/2-men-in-plain-clothes-took-him-wife-of-journalist-prashant-kanojia-arrested-by-up-cops-2050519?pfrom=home-topstories

 Journalists Arrest Sounds Death Knell For Free Speech Under BJP 2.0
A Live Law report points out that the sections invoked by the UP police ― criminal defamation under Section 500 of the India Penal Code (IPC), damaging a computer system under Section 66 of the Information Technology Act ― do not apply either on procedural or substantive grounds. 

Veteran journalist Sharat Pradhan said, “This is very scary. This is total intolerance. They want complete obedience and anyone who dissents is unacceptable to them. They want to crush whatever is left of the independent media.” Pradhan, who has reported out of Lucknow for over three decades, said journalists, who continue writing and speaking against the present dispensation in UP, are at risk.  When asked to compare the Adityanath’s treatment of journalists as compared to the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party-led governments in UP, Pradhan said that the two regional parties were “feudal” and contemptuous of the press, but the crucial difference was that no one in the past 30 years has been as powerful as the BJP. 

In 2003, Pradhan moved the Supreme Court, seeking the removal of Akhand Pratap Singh, a corrupt IAS officer, who served as the chief secretary to Mulayam Singh Yadav. He recalls bureaucrats in the past dispensations haranguing journalists for criticising their political masters, and politicians expressing their displeasure over certain stories, but threats to life and liberty were still the exception rather than the norm. In the 2019 Press Freedom Index, put out by Reporters Without Borders, India ranked 140 out of 180 countries, dropping two positions since 2018... read more:
https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/journalists-arrest-sounds-death-knell-for-free-speech-under-bjp-2-0_in_5cfdb4cce4b0aab91c082c88?utm_hp_ref=in-homepage


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