AMWJU, EGM serve legal notices on EGI
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, September 24 2023: The All Manipur Working Journalists' Union (AMWJU) and the Editors' Guild Manipur (EGM) have served separate legal notices on the president and three members of the Editors' Guild of India (EGI) .

Representing AMWJU, Senior Advocate Sapam Biswajit Meitei's junior Advocate Haobam Prabir Kumar Singh sent a legal notice to the EGI president and EGI members; Seema Guha, Sanjay Kapoor and Bharat Bushan today.

Another legal notice was also sent to the EGI president and the three members by Advocate Sapam Biswajit Meitei's junior Naorem Prista Devi on behalf of the EGM.

Contents of the two legal notices are more or less similar.

The two legal notices were sent against the Report of the Fact-Finding Mission on Media's Reportage of the Ethnic Violence in Manipur published by the EGI on September 2 .

AMWJU, EGM serve legal notices on EGI

Saying that the particular report did severe damages to the reputation of both AMWJU and EGM, the legal notices asked the EGI to remove the report from their social media handles and websites, and come out with a clarification within 15 days.

If the EGI fails to act within 15 days either by way of expunging those defamatory statements levelled against AMWJU and EGM and by removing the particular report from its social media handles/websites, legal action which may either be civil, criminal or both would be taken up against the EGI president and the three members, warned the legal notices.

"Further our clients reserve the right to claim additional damages deemed fit and entitled by law as you have unreasonably, and maliciously defamed our clients", said the legal notices.

Following the ATSUM's Tribal Solidarity March held on May 3 which resulted in the present violence in Manipur, one Anurag Pandey, Colonel General Staff (Information Warfare) on behalf of the Army's 3 Corps GOC wrote a letter to the EGI on July 12 inviting the EGI to examine the alleged partisan nature of reporting by media outlets in the Imphal valley and ascertain whether the guidelines for journalists and media houses have been violated by these media outlets.

Subsequently, EGI circulated a letter on July 26 seeking donation for the expenses of the EGI members who would be visiting Manipur on a three-day fact finding mission.

The EGI team visited Manipur from August 7 to 10 and their report was published on September 2 .

But the report has many contentions and wrong representations as it was ill-motivated, biased, sponsored and favoured one particular community.

The report also branded Imphal based media as 'Meitei media' thereby causing severe damages to the reputation and credibility of the Imphal-based media outlets.

Challenging the EGI report, AMWJU and EGM issued a press release on September 3 .

The Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Head of Forest Force, Government of India wrote a letter on September 6 clarifying that the points mentioned in page nos 3 and 5 of the EGI report were wrong and unverified.

Further, a group of 33 individuals wrote to the EGI president on September 6 demanding complete scrapping of the so-called fact-finding mission's report.

Publication of the EGI's report when a three-member commission constituted by the Central Government has been already probing the Manipur violence is not permissible in the eye of the law, said the legal notices.

The report was fabricated, ill-motivated, biased, favoured a particular community and violated the ethics of journalism.

The report, instead of helping to contain the violence, only escalated it, said the legal notices.

It is said that the legal notices were served after the EGI refused to act on letters sent three times by AMWJU and EGM to remove the particular report from the public domain.