New Delhi, 27 May 2021: The Indian Journalists Union welcomes the Supreme Court quashing the sedition case against veteran journalist Vinod Dua for his alleged comments against Prime Minister Modi in his YouTube show last year. At the same time, the Union demanded that authorities stop harassing journalists critical of governments.
An FIR filed by the Himachal Pradeshgovernment and a local BJP leader charged Dua under sections 124A (sedition), 268 (public nuisance), 501 (printing matter known to be defamatory) and 505 (statements conducive to public mischief), wherein he was accused of sharing false information about the government’s readiness to handle COVID-19 and accused Modi of “garnering votes through acts of terrorism” on his YouTube channel.
Though the apex court gave Dua reprieve saying Kedar Nath Singh judgment of 1962 entitles every journalist to protection, it declined his prayer that no FIR should be registered against any media personnel with 10 years' experience unless cleared by a committee, noting it would amount to an encroachment into the domain of the executive. The bench had on October 6, 2020 had reserved the verdict on Dua’s petition and extended till further orders the protection granted to him from any coercive action in the case.
In a statement, IJU President and former Member, Press Council of India, Geetartha Pathak and IJU Secretary General and International Federation of Journalists Vice President Sabina Inderjit said the apex court’s verdict should make government’s wary of harassing and intimidating journalists as it clearly defined the issue of protection of freedom of speech and expression of media personnel.
Freedom of the press is a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, said the Union and that governments must refrain from rising trend of stifling critical media. Unfortunately, State governments which do not find a particular telecast to be in sync with their political ideologies register FIRs against persons of the media primarily to harass them and to intimidate them so that they succumb to the line of the State or else face the music at the hands of the police. ‘Politically motivated’ actions simply ‘to settle scores for critically evaluating the functioning of the Central government at the present time of Covid’, have no place in a democratic society, said IJU.
