The statement says the manner in which the UP government and its police have been pursuing this with a “single-minded agenda smacks of vindictiveness”.
New Delhi: More than 200 journalists have condemned the FIRs filed against Siddharth Varadarajan, founding editor of The Wire, by the Uttar Pradesh government. On April 10, the Uttar Pradesh police served a notice on The Wire and summoned Varadarajan to Ayodhya on April 14, despite the fact that the nationwide lockdown will still be in effect then.
“The manner in which the U.P government and its police have been pursuing this with a single-minded agenda smacks of vindictiveness. The state has an extra responsibility to exercise restraint on use of its powers when citizens are restricted in exercising many of their usual democratic rights.,” the statement says.
The complete statement and the full list of signatories has been reproduced below.
More than 200 journalists condemn attempts to muzzle the media
Statement dated April 11, 2020
We, the undersigned members of the journalist fraternity, strongly condemn the FIRs filed against Siddharth Varadarajan, Founding Editor of the Wire by the Uttar Pradesh government. This constitutes nothing but a brazen attempt to muzzle the media. The Wire was accused of causing panic when it reported that UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath attended a religious event on March 25 at Ayodhya on the occasion of Ram Navmi, when a national lockdown was in force.
The Wire has held that the CM’s presence was a matter of public record and knowledge. A sentence in an article in the Wire had wrongly attributed a statement made by Acharya Paramhans to the chief minister, which was not only retracted but a corrigendum issued as well.
Rather than let the matter end there, a FIR was filed in Faizabad district. On April 10, a team of the UP police descended at Siddharth Varadarajan’s residence to serve him a notice for appearing on April 14, irrespective of the fact that a nationwide lockdown was in force. The manner in which the U.P government and its police have been pursuing this with a single-minded agenda smacks of vindictiveness. The state has an extra responsibility to exercise restraint on use of its powers when citizens are restricted in exercising many of their usual democratic rights. Freedom of the press is doubly important in such a context as people cannot make news themselves, but independent media is the most important medium of expressing their concerns. We demand that such politically motivated harassment of media persons should stop immediately.
Supported and endorsed by:
N.Ram, Chairman of The Hindu Group of Publications
Sreenivasan Jain, NDTV
Alan Rusbridger, Former Editor, The Guardian
Rajdeep Sardesai, Senior Journalist, India Today TV
Suhasini Haider, The Hindu
Swati Chaturvedi, Senior Journalist
R. Vijaya Sankar, Editor, Frontline
Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, Sr Associate Editor, Frontline
T.K Rajalakshmi, Frontline
Maya Mirchandani, Senior Journalist
Harish Khare, Senior Journalist and Columnist
Prem Shankar Jha, Senior Columnist
Sagarika Ghose, Senior Journalist, Times of India
Om Thanvi, Senior Journalist and Former Editor, Jansatta
Anuradha Bhasin, Editor, Kashmir Times
Sonia Singh, Editorial Director, NDTV
Shobhna Jain, Sr. Journalist
Sonal Kellogg, Independent Journalist
Aruna Singh, Independent Journalist
Ravinder Bawa, Independent Journalist
Neelam Jeena, Sr, Correspondent, Sandhya Jyoti Darpan Daily
Parul Sharma, Independent Journalist.
Sajjad Haider, Editor, Kashmir Observer
Saif Khalid, Deputy Editor, Al Jazeera
Priti Prakash, Editor, facenfacts
Parul Jain, Freelancer
Anjali Deshpande, Independent Journalist.
Sujata Madhok, Independent Journalist.
Seema Mustafa, Editor, The Citizen
Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Senior Journalist
Saroj Dhuliya, Navbharat times.
Aditi Nigam, Newsclick
Anju Grover, Independent Journalist.
Kiran Shaheen, Independent Journalist.
Karuna John, Independent Journalist.
Vidya Subramaniam, Independent Journalist
Sumita Mehta, Sr. Journalist
Ashlin Mathew, journalist
Hema Ramakrishnan, Senior journalist
Anjali Ojha, Journalist
Subodh Verma, Newsclick
A.M. Jigeesh, Business Line.
Ajoy Ashirwaad, The Wire
Iftikhar Geelani, Senior Journalist
Majid Maqbool, Contributor, Foreign Policy, The Globe Post
Teesta Setalvad, Senior Journalist
Majid Hyderi, Independent journalist and TV commentator
P L Vincent, senior journalist
Rosalyn D’Mello, Freelancer
Praveen Khariwal, President, Press club of MP
Gautam Lahiri, Senior Journalist
John Cherian, Frontline
A.J. Phillip, Senior Journalist
Jose Kalathil, Senior Journalist
Rashmi Sehgal, Sr. Journalist
Ramesh Menon, Contributing Editor, India Legal
Albert Thyrniang, Contributor, Shillong Times
Avtar Negi, Senior Journalist
Dr John Dayal, former treasurer, Editors’ Guild of India, Author
Neha Dixit, Independent journalist
Sonia Khurana, Visual artist
Shuddhabrata Sengupta, artist and writer
Akshaya Mukul, Journalist and writer
Revati Laul, Independent Journalist
Manoj Mitta, Journalist and author
Divya Trivedi, Frontline
Arti Jaiman, Community broadcaster
Nirmal John, journalist and author
Anando Bhakto, Frontline
Shweta Rashmi, Independent Journalist
Neerja Chowdhury, Senior Journalist
Anita Saluja, Senior Journalist
Aniruddha Bahal, Senior Journalist
Jeejo Augustine, Senior Journalist, Borneo Bulletin
Ravivarma , Navamalayali current affairs online (political editor)
Shankar Raghuraman, Senior journalist
P K Datta, Senior journalist
Debashis Chatterji, Senior journalist
G.Shankar, President, Kerala Patrapravarthaka Association
Shastri Ramachandaran, senior journalist, (Editorial Consultant, WION)
Purnima Tripathi, Frontline
V. Venkatesan, Frontline
Pankaj Molekhi, senior journalist
Akshay Deshmane, Huffington Post.
Ammu Joseph, Journalist and author
Gokul Krishnamoorthy. Independent Columnist (ET Brand Equity, Financial Express).
Anand Kochukudy, Editor, The Kochi Post
T V Jayan, Senior Deputy Editor, Hindu Business Line
Shajahan Madampat, Columnist, Outlook
Ajaz Ashraf, Freelancer.
Gayatri J, Consultant, Sabha TV, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
VM Deepa, Senior Consultant, Sabha TV, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
Sundeep Dougal, Independent Journalist
Raksha Kumar, Independent journalist
Sushma Varma, Senior Journalist
Laxmi Murthy, Independent Journalist
VK Raveendran, Editor, Gaddhika Daily, Payyannuur, Kerala
Rajaram S, Senior Executive Editor, Carees360
Preetha Nair, Outlook magazine
Sukumar Muralidharan, Freelance Journalist.
P. V. Thomas, Freelance Journalist.
Swati Goswami, Independent Writer, Ahmedabad
Priya Raveendran, Senior Consultant, Sabha TV, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
Nirmesh Singh, AgriNation
Saimi Sattar, The Pioneer
Bishakha De Sarkar, The Hindu Business Line
Smitha Verma, freelance journalist
Japleen Pasricha,
Preeti Mehra, journalist, New Delhi
Sudhanva Deshpande, publisher
Anita Dube, Artist, Gr. Noida
Asad Ashraf, Independent journalist
Samita Bhatia, Lifestyle writer
Jagan Negi freelance, Photo-Journalist
CJ Kuncheria, The India Forum
Sunil Menon, Outlook magazine
N.B. Nair, Executive Editor, Indian Science Journal
Ajith Pillai, journalist
Gargi Parsai, Senior Journalist
Saroj Nagi, Senior Journalist
Dhamini, Journalist
Dr Suresh Mathew, Editor, Indian Currents Weekly
Raza Haider, Documentary filmmaker
Nupur Basu, Documentary filmmaker
Kay Benedict, Freelance
P.M. Narayanan, Chief Producer, South Asia, ARD, German TV
Geeta Seshu, Co-editor, Free Speech by Collective
Kushal Jeena, Journalist
Ziya Us Salam, Frontline
Aditi Bhal, Journalist
Dr Mukesh Kumar, Senior Journalist
Shachi Chaturvedi, Senior Journalist
Nadeem Ahmed, Journalist
Rahil Chopra, Journalist
Trina Shankar, Newsclick
Fazal Imam Mallick, Senior Journalist
Rukmini Anandani, Senior Journalist
Rithambara Shastri, Senior Journalist
Sagari Chhabra, Filmmaker
Anita Katyal, Senior Columnist
Kuldeep Kumar, Senior Columnist
Roja S., Senior Content Co-ordinator, Sabha TV
Sruthisagar Yamunan, Scroll.in
Arvind Tiwari, Indore Press Club
Saurabh Duggal, Chandigarh Press Club
Shruti Chaturvedi
Natasha Badhwar, author and film-maker
Charu Soni, Independent Journalist
Brinelle D’Souza
Aftab Ahmad
Shambhavi
Aesha Datta, Economic Times
Amiti Sen, Business Line
Renu Mittal, Senior Journalist
M.M. Dileep, Senior Journalist
Anil Thomas, Senior Journalist
Shaji Joseph, Senior Journalist
Cedric Prakash, Senior Journalist
Mrinal Vallari, Journalist, Jansatta
Usha Rai, Senior Journalist
Shubha Singh, Senior Journalist
Sujata Mathur, Senior Journalist
Tripta Batra, Senior Journalist
Syed Nooruzzaman, Senior Journalist
Francis Arackal, Senior Journalist
Bindu Abraham, Sr. Journalist
Lijo Thomas, Sr. Journalist
Lissy M, Sr. Journalist
Wilson Kappatil, Senior Journalist
Ignatius Gonsalves, Senior Journalist
Jose Kavi, Senior Journalist
Tessy Jacob, Senior Journalist
F.M. Britto, Senior Journalist
Bindu Abraham, Senior Journalist
Asrar Khan, Senior Journalist
B.P. Dobhal, Senior Journalist
Vineeta Pandey, Senior Journalist
Gowhar Geelani, Senior Journalist.
Dr Dinesh Kadam, writer.
Antara Dev Sen, Senior Journalist
Bhasha Singh, Senior Journalist
V. Sridhar, Frontline
Sabith Muhammad, Independent Journalist, Kerala
K.M. Rakesh, The Telegraph
K.S. Dakshina Murthy, Independent Journalist
K.P. Mohan, Senior Sports Journalist
Radhika Ramseshan, Senior Journalist
Chitti Pantulu, Senior Journalist
M. Prabhu, Senior Journalist
K. Giriprakash, Senior Journalist
G. Krishnan, Senior Journalist
Parvathi Menon, Independent Journalist
Bageshree. S, Senior Journalist
Amulya Gopalakrishnan, Senior Journalist
Afshan Yasmeen, Senior Journalist
Bidanda Chengappa, Senior Journalist
K.G. Vasuki, Senior Journalist
Vikas Pathak, Freelance Journalist
Vrinda Gopinath, Independent Journalist
Mannika Chopra, Independent Journalist
R.K. Radhakrishnan, Frontline
K.K. Shahina, Senior Journalist
Girdhar Narayan, The Hindu
Richa Bansal, Independent Journalist
Ilangovan Rajasekaran, Frontline
Anupama Katakam, Frontline
Lyla Bavadam, Frontline
Angana Parekh, Senior Journalist
Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhya, Frontline
Sarthak Ray, Financial Express
S. Srinivasan, Senior Journalist
Neena Vyas, Senior Journalist
Vikhar Ahmed, Frontline
Shivani Rawat, Senior Journalist
Bhaskar Chatterjee, Editor, Political and National Affairs, National TV, Kolkata
Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, Senior Columnist
Courtesy The Wire
