Inviting EGI by Indian Army for objective assessment!
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: September 13, 2023 -

IN the continuing saga of its infamy, the revelation that the Editors' Guild of India (EGI) had sent its three-member fact finding mission team, which came up with a highly skewed report on the media's reportage of the ethnic violence in Manipur, at the invitation of Indian Army has only raised more questions than one could ever attempt to find answers.

It has raised questions not only on the integrity of the EGI, which had earlier claimed that it was a crowd-funded fact-finding mission conducted independently, but also On the intention of Indian Army in inviting such a media group which is infamous for spreading fake news and information.

During the hearing of the case related to the FIRs filed against the president of EGI and the three members in the fact-finding team in the Supreme Court on September 11, noted advocate Kapil Sibal, who represented EGI, argued that the EGI members should not be prosecuted on the basis of their report as EGI did not volunteer but had only sent its members to visit Manipur at the invitation of the Army.

"We did not volunteer... It's a letter from the Army to the Editors Guild dated July 12, 2023... It's an invitation by the Army to the Editors Guild saying see what's happening there. Unethical and ex-parte reporting of incidents of Manipur by vernacular media. If Your Lordships go through this letter, you will realise what's happening. It's at their invitation that we went there."

These are the exact words quoted to have been said by the senior counsel in putting up his case for defending those named in the FIRs registered by the Manipur police under different sections of IPG including Section 153-A, 200/295/298/5000/505(1)(B)/505(2)/120-B, which, among others, pertain to defamation, promoting enmity between different communities, criminal conspiracy, instigating people against the state, etc.

Its no wonder that the three-judge bench of Chief justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and Manoj Misra, who presided over the case hearing, got puzzled by the revelation, and the Chief Justice of India had enquired, "But why will the Army tell the Editors Guild to come to Manipur...?"

This is the same question many people, including who have outrightly rejected the report of EGI's fact finding team as well as those who are critical of taking up any coercive action against journalists for their works, might be asking today.

While the objection of the journalist fraternity in the state to the report of EGI's fact-finding mission is understandable as it has painted them in poor light by making a swift conclusion that the media in Manipur, which is essentially based in Imphal got transformed into "Meitei-media" and the journalists wrote "one-sided reports" in the current conflict between the Meitei and the Kuki communities, many people who are critical of the FIRs registered against the EG1 members have also acknowledged the fact that the report is not only filled with factually incorrect information but also offer nothing substantial on the table that could be of some value in the effort of resolving the present humanitarian crisis in the strife-torn northeastern state.

Now, the pertinent question is if the Indian Army really wanted an "objective assessment of what's happening there on the ground," then why did it invite a media group which has been called out on more than one occasions for peddling fake news and reports in the past?