SC stays AMWJU's defamation case against EGI
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, September 24 2024:
Of the two defamation cases filed by All Manipur Working Journalists' Union (AMWJU) and Editors' Guild of Manipur (EGM) against report of the Fact Finding Team of the Editors' Guild of India (EGI) on the violence in Manipur, the case filed by AMWJU has been stayed by the Supreme Court of India after three members of the Fact Finding Team along with EGI president filed writ petition at the apex court.
Notably, the three-member Team formed by the EGI comprising Seema Guha, Sanjay Kapoor and Bharat Bhushan visited Manipur on request of the Army to investigate reportage of media in Manipur about the clashes that broke out on May 3, 2023 and subsequent violent incidents.
The EGI even claimed that the Fact Finding Team was sent to the state with crowd funding.
The team stayed in Manipur for two/three days and even met representatives of AMWJU, Manipur Hill Journalists' Union and EGM at Manipur Press Club.
However, report of the Team mentioned that media in Imphal are biased, and even branded as 'Meitei Media'.
Apart from condemning the report of EGI uploaded on its website after reaching New Delhi, AMWJU and EGM strongly called upon EGI to issue a rebuttal to delete defamatory statements mentioned in the report along with serving a legal notice.
Instead of rectifying the report, the EGI continued to upload the rebuttal jointly issued by AMWJU and EGM on their website compelling initiation of a criminal defamation case at the court of CJM, Imphal East.
Regarding the case, the court of CJM issued a directive on June 25, 2024 asking all the three members of the Fact Finding Team and EGI president Seema Mustafa to appear before the court on July 15, 2024 to give their statement/ clarification.
However, the three members and EGI president filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court of India with the latter ordering the State of Manipur, Union of India and AMWJU president to respond within three weeks apart from staying order of the CJM Imphal East issued on the defamation case.
In connection with the Writ Petition (Criminal) case no 354/2024 filed by four persons from the EGI side including Seema Guha, the apex court on September 6 directed respondents of the case (State of Manipur, Union of India and AMWJU president) to give answers within three weeks.
The writ petition from the EGI was filed by counsels of Seema Guha, Sanjay Kapoor, Bharat Bhushan and EGI president.
The order of the apex court also stayed Complaint Case No 5 of 2024 filed at the court of CJM by AMWJU president Bijoy Kakchingtabam against three members of the EGI team and EGI president Seema Mustafa.
Bijoy's complaint filed at CJM Imphal East through his counsel mentioned that three members of EGI visited Manipur from August 7 to 10, 2023 based on the request letter of Army's GOC general staff (Information Warfare) Col Anurag Pandey issued on July 12, 2023 .
After the self-pro-claimed members of the EGI's Fact Finding Committee left Manipur, a report titled 'Media's reportage of the ethnic violence in Manipur' was published on September 2, 2023 and the same report went viral on social media platforms.
The EGI report not only wrongly portrayed media houses of Manipur before the international fraternity but also contained unfounded, unbelievable and biased statements supportive of only one community.
The EGI failed to comply with the request of AMWJU and EGM to either withdraw the report or publish after rectification.
Considering the EGI's act as criminal act/offence, AMWJU and EGM approached law court and sought legal action against the culprits.
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