The Editors Guild of India (EGI) on Monday urged Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to free the journalists who were jailed, withdraw cases that are under review and ensure safety of all working journalists in the State.
The EGI also said that it was keen to send a delegation of national editors to Lucknow to meet Mr. Adityanath and work with his administration to explore ways that “can create a protective environment for the media to work without fear or favor”.
Several incidents had come to the fore in recent times that raised “deep concerns on the space for free, fearless and independent journalism” in U.P., the Guild said in a letter. The statement was signed by its newly elected office-bearers Seema Mustafa, president of the EGI, its general secretary Sanjay Kapoor and treasurer Anant Nath.
Addressing Mr. Adityanath, the EGI said that while he was right to promptly uphold the freedom of the press when an editor (Arnab Goswami) of a TV channel was arrested, there were “far more compelling cases of intimidation, harassment by authorities of working journalists in U.P., who were prevented from doing their job”.
