Police move against journalist for sharing cartoon condemned

Civil society members demand scrapping of FIR

April 18, 2018 12:39 am | Updated 12:39 am IST - HYDERABAD

Calling it an attack on press freedom, journalists and civil society organisations condemned the action of Hyderabad Police to book a journalist for sharing a cartoon posted by The Hindu correspondent Swathi Vadlamudi on her personal Facebook page.

The police registered a case under IPC Section 295 A and named Chennai-based journalist Shabbir Ahmed of Times Now in the FIR following a complaint by an advocate Karunasagar Kasimshetty. A complaint was also lodged by the advocate against Ms. Vadlamudi in Saidabad Police Station.

Saidabad Police Station House Officer K. Sattaiah said the complaint is under investigation.

Press freedom

Reacting to complaints against the journalists, president of Indian Journalist Union S.N. Sinha and the union’s general secretary Amar Devulapalli called the move an attempt to curb press freedom. The union demanded that FIR be scrapped, while urging the Press Council of India to take cognizance of the matter.

Other forums, including Telangana Union of Working Journalists and Telangana Working Journalists Federation, condemned the police move. Presidents of TWJF and TUWJ, M. Somalah, and Allam Narayana, said while protests and candlelight marches have taken place in the real world, journalists have expressed their opinions in a medium conducive to them.

Civil rights group Human Rights Forum opined the cartoon does not attract the provisions of the section under which the FIR was registered. S. Jeevan Kumar and V.S. Krishna of the forum appealed to the State to not take cognisance of the case. Varavara Rao of the Revolutionary Writers’ Organisation (Virasam) also condemned the action against the journalists.

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