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June 10, 2008
 

Intimidation Of The Media - Who Gains? 

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