AHRC on assault of scribe
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, February 14, 2013:
Taking serious note over the brutal attack causing grievous injury and bodily harm to Aribam Chaoba Sharma, a staff reporter of Imphal Free Press by the Commander of a team of officers from Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB), Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has written to the concerned authorities demanding that the perpetrators of this brutal assault on a senior member of the press in Manipur be brought to justice and the victim be accorded with just compensation.
The AHRC is also writing a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur calling for intervention in the case in the interest of promotion and protection of the freedom of press/media in Manipur.
AHRC noted the fact that officers of IRB, police officers and paramilitary police have, on many other occasions, deliberately and without any reason attacked journalists in Manipur, where Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, is implemented and this incident is yet another proof of misused of the Act.