On Tuesday, the Editors Guild of India condemned the arrest of Mohammed Zubair, the co-founder of leftist propagandist portal Alt News and termed it as ‘extremely disturbing’ and ‘unjustifiable’. The organization also demanded Zubair’s immediate release.
This is a day after Zubair was arrested by the Delhi Police for mocking Hindu Gods and Goddesses and hurting the religious sentiments of the Hindu community. He was arrested based on a complaint filed by a social media user who referred to one of his derogatory tweets from 2018. FIR has been filed under IPC sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 295-A (malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings).
The Editors Guild of India condemns the arrest of Muhammad Zubair, co-founder of the fact checking site AltNews, by the Delhi Police on June 27, for a tweet from 2018. EGI demands that the Delhi Police should immediately release Muhammad Zubair. pic.twitter.com/q9uYqFxaPA
— Editors Guild of India (@IndEditorsGuild) June 28, 2022
Terming the events leading up to the arrest as ‘bizarre’ and ‘disturbing’, the statement by the organization read, “Zubair has been arrested under sections 153 and 295 of the Indian Penal Code. This is extremely disturbing because Zubair and his website Alt News have done some exemplary work over the past few years in identifying fake news and countering disinformation campaigns, in a very objective and factual manner”.
Further, referring to Zubair’s role in the episode of Nupur Sharma’s alleged ‘blasphemy’ remarks, the statement noted that the recent arrest was nothing but ‘an exposure of toxic remarks of a ruling party spokesperson on a TV channel that allowed the party to make amends’. Notably, Zubair had taken a statement out of context from Sharm’s debate and had released it on social media alleging her blasphemy. His tweet forced an army of trolls and Islamist protesters to act against Sharma and demand her death.
Severe Islamist protests influenced by Zubair’s tweet against Sharma disturbed the law and order and peace in the Indian cities of Kanpur, Prayagraj, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Solapur (Maharashtra), Ludhiana (Punjab), Belagavi (Karnataka), and also in the states of West Bengal and Jharkhand.
Earlier, a body of digital news media organizations named Digipub had also condemned the arrest of Zubair and had asked the Delhi Police to withdraw the case against him immediately. Advocating for his ‘freedom of speech and expression’, the organization said, “it is unjustifiable that such stringent laws are being used as tools against journalists, who have been accorded the role of playing watchdog against the misuse of institutions of the state”.
Editors Guild’s perfunctory statement following the arrest of Republic TV Editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami
It is important to note that the Editors Guild of India which claims to protect the press freedom had merely taken a stand for Republic TV journalist Arnab Goswami in the year 2020. Goswami’s arrest in 2020 in a 2018 abatement to suicide case which was closed, was hardly entertained by the Editors Guild of India who condemned the arrest and asked CM Thackeray to ‘treat him fairly’.
Around 30 police personnel, many armed with assault rifles had physically assaulted and dragged Republic TV editor-in-chief, Arnab Goswami, to the Raigad police station on November 4, 2020. Reports then mentioned that the SP Raigad was directly given orders from the CM office to arrest Arnab.
The Editors Guild of India has issued a statement on the arrest of Arnab Goswami, editor-in-chief of Republic TV. pic.twitter.com/gL3MstVlla
— Editors Guild of India (@IndEditorsGuild) November 4, 2020
Also, amid the Sushant Singh Rajput case, the organization had tried to monkey-balance its statement condemning hundreds of FIRs filed against journalists of Republic TV. In a press release by the Editors Guild, the association had said that it was ‘pained’ to see the unedifying spectacle of hundreds of FIRs being filed against journalists of Republic TV, which was ‘under probe for allegedly manipulating TRPs and spreading discontent against the Mumbai Police’.
The statement that was released after around two weeks of the witch-hunt launched by the Maharashtra government and the Mumbai Police against Republic TV, read, “We do not wish to influence the probe by the authorities, even if we recognize it has the potential to bring in much-needed transparency on the manipulation of popularity, and creation of proceeds of crime- as claimed by the police; but the victimization of the journalists should immediately stop”.
“Right to free speech does not mean a license to promote hate speech”, it had added indirectly directing the words to the media organization. In the recent case, the Editors Guild has found Mohammed Zubair’s arrest as ‘extremely disturbing’ and ‘unjustifiable’. The organization has demanded the Delhi Police release him immediately.
