Keeping an eye out: Police personnel make a chain to keep a watch as journalists protest at the Press Club of India, in New Delhi.
Joint protest by Editors Guild, Press Club of India, Indian Women Press Corps
Journalists staged a protest here on Monday, demanding the immediate release of freelance reporter Prashant Kanojia and Nation Live journalists Anuj Shukla and Ishika Singh.
Mr. Kanojia was arrested for allegedly tweeting a video of a woman claiming to be in a relationship with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Mr. Shukla and Ms. Singh have been arrested for playing the video on their channel. They have been booked for criminal defamation.
Wearing black arm bands and holding placards, the journalists marched from the Press Club of India to Parliament, raising slogans against the Adityanath government.
They were stopped metres away from Parliament House. They were joined by Mr. Kanojia’s wife, Jagisha Arora, 26. “My husband merely put out a tweet of a video, which was shared by others. Why harass only one person and, that too, using unconstitutional means. I have been told that the Uttar Pradesh police have been misbehaving with Prashant, and they aren’t ready to give us any reply. Today, it is Prashant; tomorrow, it could be anyone,” she said.
Ms. Arora said her husband had gone to buy grocery and returned with two men. He told her that they belonged to the Uttar Pradesh police, who were taking him away for his tweet.
The couple got married only nine months ago and were living in east Delhi.
‘Spread the word’
“He told me to tell everyone we know that he is being taken away. As far as I know, the policemen did not have any arrest warrant. It is only hours later when I phoned him that I came to know he was being taken to Lucknow,” she said.
The protest was held jointly by members of the Editors Guild of India, the Press Club of India, the Indian Women Press Corps, the South Asian Women in the Media, the Press Association and independent journalists and activists.
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