IJU expresses deep concern

NEW DELHI, Sep 11
The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) has expressed grave concern over journalists being repeatedly harassed and targeted by the Government in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
A press release issued by the secretary general of IJU conveyed that recently two cases were reported wherein a journalist was arrested in UP's Azamgarh district and an FIR was lodged against another journalist in Uklana district of Haryana.
IJU demanded the case against the two journalists to be withdrawn and for the media in these States to be allowed to carry out their rightful duty without any fear.
On the other hand, a joint statement issued by IJU acting president Geetartha Pathak and secretary general IFJ vice president Sabina Inderjit said that Governments targeting journalists reveal their intolerance to truth, while covering their misdeeds and curtailing the citizens' rights to be informed.
It stated that in UP, the Azamgarh police arrested Santosh Jaiswal on Friday last for taking pictures and videos of children mopping floors at Oodupur Primary School.
Jaiswal is said to have called the police to complain against the school but he was instead arrested on charges of "extortion and obstructing public servants from doing their duties", added the statement.
It further stated that later, the school Principal Radhey Shyam Yadav claimed that Jaiswal often visited the school, harassed the teachers/students, forced the kids to mop the floor so he could photograph and demand money.
It maintained that District Magistrate NP Singh, on Monday last, ordered an investigation after local journalists met him and explained that the police action against Jaiswal was retaliatory as he had shown error by Phulpur police SHO.
The arrest came a week after an FIR was filed against Pawan Jaiswal for reporting kids in Mirzapur school eating chapatis sand salt during their midday meal.
Meanwhile, in Haryana, the Uklana district police filed an FIR on Friday against Anop Kundhu of STV Haryana news, The Boice News, for showing wheat getting spoiled in the open at the Centre of the Food & Supplies Department.
This follows after the department's Assistant officer Sanjay Chahal registered a complaint claiming that news to be "false" and that Kundhu was "spoiling the image of he department and the official".