Editors Guild slams attack on journos

While demanding action against those involved in beating up members of their fraternity in the Patiala House courts complex in the presence of the police, the Editors Guild of India said in a statement: “The Editors Guild of India took serious note of the assault on journalists and strongly condemns this attempt to intimidate the media through the threat of physical violence, and prevent the journalists from doing their job.”

The NBA termed the incident a cowardly attack meant to intimidate journalists carrying out their work in disseminating news and information, a service that is essential for any democratic society.

Earlier on Tuesday, the journalists, shouting slogans against the Narendra Modi government and Delhi police, marched from Press Club of India to the Supreme Court and submitted a memorandum to its registrar seeking cancellation of licences of lawyers involved in the assault. The protesters demanded that police commissioner B.S. Bassi be sacked for alleged inaction by security personnel at the Patiala House courts when journalists, students and teachers of JNU where attacked by people wearing lawyers’ black robes.

A separate delegation of journalists also met Mr Rajnath Singh demanding his intervention in ensuring “accountability of the Delhi police who watched the assault silently”. The memorandum was submitted to the SC even as it agreed to hear a petition on Wednesday on a plea seeking action against those involved in the violence.

“We demand the intervention of the highest court of the land to take appropriate action against the advocates involved in the assault,” the memorandum said, urging the court to direct the bar council to cancel the licences of the errant advocates.

No arrest has been made even 24 hours after the assault where Delhi BJP MLA OP Sharma was also seen beating up a CPI activist. The journalists also said that CCTV footage of the incident should be called for and the police directed to ensure protection of mediapersons.

A delegation of the Indian Women’s Press Corps told the home minister that the brutal assault was unleashed by lawyers on journalists in the Patiala House courts, preventing them from discharging their duties. They also complained that the police remained “silent spectators” during the assault and asked Mr Rajnath Singh to fix accountability on the men in uniform.

“Even women journalists were not spared. It is unfortunate that security personnel of the Delhi police did nothing even as the assault continued,” the IWPC delegation led by its president, T.K, Rajalakshmi, general secretary Ravinder Bawa and vice-president Shobhna Jain, said. The journalists, accompanied by some victims of the assault, urged the home minister to verify CCTV footage of the incident to book those who were involved in it.

In the memorandum, the journalists said, “We demand that the perpetrators of the assault be brought to book at the earliest.” They said it was a matter of concern that the Delhi police commissioner had dismissed the incident as a “scuffle”. “Such observations will encourage those elements who already believe that they are above the law of the land,” they said.

On Monday, groups of men in lawyers robes had beaten up journalists and JNU students and teachers ahead of the hearing of the sedition case registered against JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar in connection with an event at the university last week to protest against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. Anti-India slogans were also allegedly raised at the event.