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Intimidation of media: Editors Guild

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Editors Guild of India has condemned the arrest of Naveena Netrikkan Editor A. S. Mani on the charge of defamation.

In a statement on Thursday, the Guild reiterated its position that arrest and imprisonment of editors and journalists on complaints of defamation amounted to intimidation of the media and was an affront to the freedom of the Press.

The Guild said the Section on criminal defamation was a hangover of the British raj where editors and journalists were thrown into prison on the pretext that they had committed criminal defamation.

“The British authorities used this draconian provision to terrorise the newspapers.”

Demand for release

Besides demanding the immediate release of Mr. Mani, who was arrested by the Madurai police for publishing an article critical of Union Minister M. K. Azhagiri, the Guild urged the government to take steps to remove the criminal defamation provision from the Indian Penal Code, which it said was used time and again as an instrument of harassment by the powers that be.

The complaint against him was lodged by another person named in the article.

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