Public Meeting, June
12, 2008, Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh
5-7 p.m.
The Gujarat Police slapped sedition charges on The Times of India,
Ahmedabad, for suggesting that Ahmedabad’s new Commissioner of
Police, Mr O P Mathur, had underworld links. If the Commissioner was
offended, he was within his rights to have initiated criminal and
civil proceedings of defamation against the publication and its
employees. But sedition?
In Thane, hoodlums claiming to represent an outfit known as Shiv
Sangram Sanghatana, attacked the house of Kumar Ketkar, editor of
the Marathi daily “Loksatta”, in broad daylight and subjected him to
verbal abuse and terror before the police arrived a full 40 minutes
later. Ketkar’s offence? In a satirical vein, he had questioned the
need for the Maharashtra government to spend Rs 300 crores on
erecting a statue of Shivaji in the Arabian Sea when Maharashtra’s
children are malnourished, have no access to schools and our farmers
are committing suicide.
Are mediapersons going to
be cowed down by such blatantly intimidatory ploys? Are we going to
be content to play the role of passive spectators? To ask
inconvenient questions is the raison d’etre of journalism. Are we a
mature democracy or are we fast becoming a backdoor banana republic?
We invite all
freedom-loving citizens and groups to attend a meeting on
“Who benefits from intimidation of
the Media?” at Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh, Opposite
BMC Headquarters, CST on 12th June 2008 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Speakers: Kumar Ketkar,
editor, Loksatta, Aspi Chinoy, Senior lawyer, P.Sainath, Editor
(rural affairs) The Hindu, Teesta Setalvad, Communalism Combat & CJP,
Neelkanth Paratkar, President, Brihanmumbai Union of Journalists.
Issued by: Brihanmumbai
Union of Journalists, Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh, Citizens for
Justice and Peace, Communalism Combat, Lokshahi Haaq Sanghatana,
Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights, Forum against
Oppression of Women, Stree Mukti Sanghatana, Akshara, Women’s
Centre, Awaz-e-Niswaan, Trade Union Solidarity Committee, Trade
Union Centre of India and other organisations