Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Dec.8: The Supreme Court on Wednesday suspended all proceedings against two female journalists who were accused by the Tripura Police of distributing “false photos” of communal violence in the northeastern state last month.
Following their reporting on communal violence in the state, the women – journalists from the HW News Network – were named in two FIRs filed by police for “promoting communal division.”
Today, the Supreme Court suspended all proceedings in both FIRs and issued a notice to the Tripura Police Department.
Justice DY Chandrachud while hearing the matter said,”We’ll issue a notice (to Tripura Police) seeking their response. There shall be a stay of all further proceedings pursuant to FIR No 39 registered in Tripura and FIR No 82. A counter-affidavit (by the petitioners) is to be filed within four weeks.”
Justice Surya Kant and Justice Vikram Nath were the other two members of the three-member panel that heard this case.
“The challenge they had is that they reported the news and a FIR was registered… and then a second FIR was registered alleging that the storey is inaccurate,” senior counsel Siddharth Luthra argued earlier on behalf of the journalists.
Theos Connect (the media business that owns HW News Network), Associate Editor Arti Ghargi, and two journalists, Samridhi Sakunia and Swarna Jha, had filed a petition with the court.
The journalists’ reports allegedly promoted hostility between communities and spread communal hatred by releasing false news on communal violence, according to Tripura police.
The petitioners defended the police action by claiming that they were merely reporting facts on the ground, based on the accounts of the victims of the assault.
The FIRs were dubbed “targeted press harassment” by the petitioners.
