IFJ, alarmed with threat to Manipur media

Imphal, Aug 10 (UNI) The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has extended its support to the Manipur media.

The journalists in Manipur were recently warned by the Manipur government not to publish any news related to militancy and the militants had also warned them to write as they wanted.

In a statement, the IFJ said ''it is alarming to learn that an adverse situation for media workers in the India's North Eastern state of Manipur, has turned markedly worse in the space of a mere week. By all credible accounts, this has happened on account both of militant groups operating in Manipur and retaliatory action by state authorities.'' ''We believe that both sides have chosen the wrong target'', said IFJ Asia Pacific Director Jacqueline Park. The statement further said the IFJ understood that the Home Department in the Manipur state government had issued an order under which any material, printed or electronically encoded, would be forfeited if it believed to contain anything connected to underground or subversive groups.

Once the notice of forfeiture was issued, police could seize any copy of the publication in question and enter upon and search its premises under the warrant issued by a magistrate, the statement added.

''These powers reserved for the police authorities would stifle any notion of media freedom'', said Park adding that more alarming though, was the notion that the state authorities could legitimately respond to the intimidation of the media by armed insurgent groups, with threats of their own.

The IFJ also condemned the July 31 incident in which a newspaper office received a live mortar shell, gift-wrapped, as a warning to stay away from publishing reports on the armed insurgent groups in the state.

''We fully endorse the action taken by the local newspaper staff to strike work in protest against this act of intimidation,'' said Park.

The IFJ calls upon the concerned militant group to respond to the demand of the community of journalists and stop targeting the media.

Various militant groups have been sending press releases to newspaper offices, demanding that they should be published, says the credible reports of IFJ.

''In this manner the armed confrontation between various militant groups is being played out in the newsrooms of Manipur media,'' the IFJ said.

The IFJ called upon the Chief Minister of Manipur to increase the security patrols in the vicinity of media offices and received positive reply for the same.

The Press Council of India has established reasonable guidelines on reporting situations of armed conflict.

However, the problems in Manipur are conspicuously different since armed insurgency affects every sphere of life and society in the state.

''For this reason, a blanket ban on the coverage of militancy in the state would amount to a serious abridgment of the public right to know'', Park added..

UNI