Journalist associations, including the Press Council of India (PCI), Indian Women's Press Corps (IWPC), Press Association, Delhi Union of Journalists, and Kerala Union of Working Journalists, have condemned the ongoing police action against Mahesh Langa, a senior journalist with The Hindu.
Langa, who is the senior Assistant Editor at The Hindu, was arrested by the Gujarat police on October 8 on allegations of tax evasion. A second FIR was slapped against him on October 22, for possessing “confidential” documents pertaining to Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB).
In a joint statement issued on Monday, October 28, they said that filing a case for possessing documents is “tantamount to a fundamental assault on the profession itself.”
“It is shocking that the mere possession of documents can be used by the state to register a FIR against a citizen and in this case, a journalist of considerable standing. It is axiomatic that journalists will, due to the nature of their profession and in the pursuance of public interest, be in possession of all kinds of material, including documents, accessed from various sources. To implicate and incriminate mediapersons for the mere possession of documents is tantamount to a fundamental assault on the profession itself,” statement read.
The journalist associations demanded the police withdraw the FIR against Langa and stop its harassment. They sought the intervention of the Press Council of India to step in and perform its mandate of safeguarding the freedom of the press.
Earlier, several senior journalists like Kalpana Sharma, Hartosh Singh Bal, and Supriya Sharma had condemned the FIR against Langa for merely possessing documents.
Meanwhile, terming the second FIR against Langa as “completely unacceptable”, Suresh Nambath, the editor of The Hindu said, “We would like to reiterate that journalists are required to process documents, including those of a confidential nature, in the line of their work. They are guided by the larger public interest in perusing documents that are official or confidential.”
Suresh Nambath said that filing charges against journalists for possession of documents is to undermine their journalistic work and their fundamental rights and to subvert the public interest. “We urge the Gujarat police to drop the charges relating to the possession of classified documents against Mahesh,” he said.