The Editors Guild of India strongly condemned the non-bailable arrest warrant against senior journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta by a Gujarat court for an article he co-authored against the Adani group in 2017.
The Guild called it an “attempt to use intimidatory tactics by powerful corporate houses against journalists to prevent media scrutiny”. The arrest warrant, it said, showed how intolerant the business houses had become to any criticism.
“Routinely they have targeted independent and intrepid journalists by using the very instruments that provide media the necessary protection,” it said in a statement.
The Guild urged the Adani group to withdraw the complaint. It also asked the higher judiciary to come up with guidelines to ensure that the criminal defamation laws were not misused.
“Criminal defamation laws are often used by those in power to suppress any scrutiny by the media, and this case is a prime example of how such laws can be misused against the cause of free and independent media,” the statement said.
