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
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:
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:
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