17 April 2018: The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) strongly condemned the First Information Report (FIR) against Swathi Vadlamudi of The Hindu and Shabbir Ahmed of Times Now by the Hyderabad Police on complaint by the Hindu Sanghatan. Swathi posted a cartoon in her Face Book page showing Lord Rama and Sita discussing the Kathua and Unnao incidents while Ahmed shared the same on his Twitter. The police filed an FIR against both of them on complaint by the Hindu Sanghatan, an outfit affiliated to the Viswa Hindu Parishad (VHP) alleging that the cartoon offended the feelings of a religious community.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Indian Journalists Union (IJU) President S N Sinha and Secretary-General Amar Devulaplli said the case against the Swathi Vadlamudi and Shabbir Ahmed was an attack on the freedom of expression and the freedom of the press guaranteed in the constitution and meant to silence journalists from discharging their assigned duty of being the voice of the voiceless. It was also aimed to frighten the journalists from exposing the forces of violence against the hapless girls.

The statement said “The case against the journalists goes against the letter and spirit of recent observations of the Chief justice of Supreme Court Deepak Misra and the judgment of Bombay High Court in the case of celebrated cartoonist Aseem Trivedi slamming the police for arbitrary action without application of their mind. It is strange that police registered an FIR against two journalists without applying their mind on a frivolous complaint of a fringe group.”

The IJU leaders demanded that the Hyderabad police should scrap the FIR against two journalists immediately and take stringent steps against the forces of communal and obscurantist forces. The Union urged upon the Press Council of India (PCI) to take sue motu cognizance of the case and take suitable action to defend freedom of expression and freedom of the press.