New Delhi, 6 August, 2020: The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) condemns the FIR registered by Sahranpur Police on the basis of a complaint from CMO, Uttar Pradesh against Sankalp Neb, a local journalist for sharing a screenshot of a Twitter posting in a WhatsApp group. The Twitter posting alleged that the reports of COVID-19 negative patients were being turned into positive under a conspiracy with the help of the private hospitals.

In a statement, IJU President and former Member, Press Council of India, Geetartha Pathak, Secretary General and IFJ Vice President Sabina Inderjit said, “Booking journalists for their critical reporting is nothing but violation of media freedom.” In this particular case Neb was just sharing a posting of another person. Interestingly the police did not file an FIR or CMO lodged any complaint against the person who tweeted the impugned post.

Registering FIR against Journalists for their critical reports instead of issuing clarifications has become a weapon of harassment and pressure tactics against journalists in the country,” said the IJU leadership. Worse it is aghast to see frequent attacks on journalists and harassment by the authorities in Uttar Pradesh. The IJU demanded immediate withdrawal of the FIR registered against Neb.