‘Effort to Intimidate Press’ in UP Sarkar is Kaafi Real

The journalists allegedly shared and aired “defamatory” content against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The Editors Guild of India called the recent arrests of journalists in Uttar Pradesh “an effort to intimidate the press, and stifle freedom of expression.”

Photo: Aroop Mishra/ The Quint

The Editors Guild of India, in a public statement dated 9 June, called the recent arrests of journalists in Uttar Pradesh “an effort to intimidate the press, and stifle freedom of expression.”

This followed the arrest of freelance journalist Prashant Kanojia on Saturday, 8 June, by the UP Police. He had shared a video of a woman who claimed that she had been video-calling Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and wanted to marry him.

Ishita Singh (head), Anuj Shukla and Anshul Kaushik (editors) at Nation Live, a Noida-based news channel, were also arrested after allegedly airing ‘defamatory’ content against Adityanath.

In the latest such incident, a local reporter, covering the derailment of a goods train in the state's Shamli district, was thrashed by a unit of the Government Railway Police on Tuesday, 11 June.

Photo: Aroop Mishra/ The Quint