Journalists protest govt diktat, no editorials today

Imphal, Aug 18 (UNI) All the newspapers in Manipur today published blank editorials to protest a government order putting restrictions on journalists and newspaper houses.

The state Home department had issued an order on August 14, directing the newspapers not to publish any insurgency-related articles.

The All Manipur Working Journalists' Union (AMWJU) opposed the order and appealed to the government not to curb the right to freedom of expression.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also extended their support to the Manipur media.

''The IFJ is alarmed to learn that an adverse situation for mediapersons in Manipur has turned markedly worse in the space of a mere week. This has happened on account of both the militant groups operating the state and retaliatory action by state authorities,'' IFJ sources said in a statement.

''We believe that both sides have chosen the wrong target,'' IFJ Asia Pacific Director Jacqueline Park said.

The statement said the IFJ understood that the state Home department had issued an order under which any material, printed or electronically encoded, would be forfeited, if believed to contain anything connected to underground or subversive groups.

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

''These powers reserved for the police authorities would stifle any notion of media freedom,'' Mr Park said.

''More alarming though, is the notion that the state authorities can legitimately respond to the intimidation of the media by armed insurgent groups, with threats of their own,'' he added.

The IFJ also condemned the July 31 incident in Imphal, when a newspaper office received a live mortar shell, gift-wrapped, as a warning to stop reporting on certain of the armed insurgent groups in the state.

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

UNI