Police complaint against Editors Guild report is Manipur government’s counter-narrative, says SC

The Supreme Court on Friday said that the police complaints against the Editors Guild of India members was a counter-narrative measure taken by the Manipur government against the press body’s report on the media coverage of the ethnic violence in the state, reported Live Law.

Two first information reports were filed against the authors of a fact-finding report – Seema Guha, Bharat Bhushan and Sanjay Kapoor – and the president of the Editors Guild of India, Seema Mustafa. The complainants had alleged that the report was false, fabricated and sponsored by narco-terrorists.

The police have invoked provisions of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to promoting enmity between groups, injuring or defiling a place of worship, uttering words with deliberate intent to hurt religious feelings, and statements conducing to public mischief.

At its previous hearing on Monday, the court had said that the case pertained to just publication of a report and was not about someone committing an offence on the ground.

The Editors Guild has sought directions from the Supreme Court to quash the two FIRs. The four members were granted interim protection on September 6 and extended it on Friday for the second time for two weeks till September 29.

At Friday’s hearing, a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud asked the complainant how the offence of promoting...

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