New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi Tuesday criticised the arrest of the editors and the head of a Noida-based TV channel, saying UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is behaving ‘foolishly’ and he should release the journalists.
Gandhi also claimed that if every journalist who files a false report or peddles fake and vicious RSS/BJP sponsored propaganda about him is put in jail, most newspapers or news channels would face a severe staff shortage.
“The UP CM is behaving foolishly and needs to release the arrested journalists,” the Congress president tweeted.
If every journalist who files a false report or peddles fake, vicious RSS/BJP sponsored propaganda about me is put in jail, most newspapers/ news channels would face a severe staff shortage.
The UP CM is behaving foolishly & needs to release the arrested journalists. https://t.co/KtHXUXbgKS
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 11, 2019
Prashant Kanojia and Anuj Shukla, editors of TV channel Nation Live, and its head Ishika Singh, have faced police action over the release of alleged objectionable content against the UP chief minister.
The Editors Guild had Sunday condemned the arrest of Kanojia, Singh and Shukla, describing the police action as an ‘authoritarian misuse of laws’ and an effort to intimidate the press.
An FIR was registered against Kanojia at Hazratganj police station in Lucknow Friday night in which it was alleged that the accused made ‘objectionable comments against the CM and tried to malign his image’.
Kanojia had shared a video on Twitter and Facebook where a woman is seen speaking to reporters of various media organisations outside the CM’s office, claiming that she had sent a marriage proposal to Adityanath.
A group of journalists and activists had held a protest here Monday over the arrests.
(PTI)