Following the order from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to take down NDTV India for a day on November 9, journalists and mediapersons have come out in strong opposition of what is being widely seen as the State's suspension of media freedom and the citizens' right to know.
AINEF Opposes NDTV Ban
The All India Newspapers Employees Federation (AINEF) has expressed serious concern at the one-day ban on the NDTV and demanded its withdrawal. In a joint statement issued on Saturday, November 5, from the AINEF Delhi Office, President Mr S. D. Thakur, Vice President Mr S. K. Pande and general secretary Mr Balagopalan have called the “ban a selective attempt at targeting NDTV.”
“We express full solidarity with the movement against the ban, which is ominous, unprecedented and an attack on freedom of the press. It is indeed arbitrary and a colourable exercise of power to muzzle the press by the authorities."
DUJ Calls for Protest on NDTV Ban
The Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) strongly and unequivocally condemns the one-day ban on NDTV’s Hindi channel, ostensibly for its reporting of the Pathankot airbase attack. We see no reason for singling out NDTV in this manner when all channels reported the attack in similar fashion. In a democracy no bureaucratic body such as the Inter-ministerial Committee of the Information & Broadcasting Ministry that issued this order should have such arbitrary powers. Exercise of such power reminds one of the dark days of the Emergency when the media was muzzled and citizens’ freedoms lost.
An emergency extended executive meeting will now be held the DUJ office at 6:30 p.m. preceded by its executive on Monday, 7 November, 2016 where its action programme will be finalised, DUJ president S. K. Pande and general secretary Sujata Madhok announced on Friday, November 4.
The statement added: ”We commend the Editors Guild for issuing a strong statement protesting the ban, and call upon all media bodies and journalists to unitedly protest this attack on media freedom. We demand an immediate revocation of this undemocratic order.”
The DUJ called for the widest possible united front to fight this and connected attacks on freedom of the press.
