Editors Guild demands action against attack on Loksatta editor

New Delhi, Jun 6 (UNI) The Editors Guild of India has strongly condemned yesterday's violent attack on the residence of Mr Kumar Ketkar, Editor of Loksatta and member of the Guild Executive Committee at Thane, and demanded stringent action against the guilty.

Mr Ketkar was targeted by an unlawful mob provoked by powerful personalities in Maharashtra. They were intolerant of an independent editorial penned by Mr Ketkar, the Guild said.

''In a democracy, every editor and journalist has the unfettered right to express his or her views on public issues. Such independent views need not necessarily meet the approval of the dominant groups and personalities in government and politics and they cannot attack the editor for expressing such views,'' it said.

The Guild said it expected stringent action against those who vandalised the residence of Mr Ketkar.

''The Maharashtra government should ensure that no one, howsoever powerful, would threaten the freedom of press,'' Guild Secretary General K S Sachidananda Murthy said in a statement.

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