The official Twitter handle of the Caravan India Magazine has been withheld in India days after an FIR was filed against the magazine, on the charge of misleading and providing false information that a farmer was killed due to police firing at the ITO intersection in Delhi during the tractor rally on Republic Day.
On Monday, various social media users condemning the ban posted screenshots of the official handle which has been barred in India.
The Caravan had put out a tweet citing eyewitness accounts saying that the farmer was shot down by the police. Acting on the same, a case has now been registered at the IP Estate police station which also names certain other persons who too tried to mislead the public.
The joint press meeting that was organized by the Press Club of India (PCI), the Editors’ Guild of India, the Press Association, the Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC) stated, “This is a pathetic excuse on the part of the concerned state governments. In a moving story, things change on a regular basis. Accordingly, the reporting reflects the circumstances, when large crowds are involved and the air is thick with suppositions, suspicions, and hypotheses, there can sometimes be a divergence between earlier and later reports. It is criminal to ascribe this to motivated reporting, as is sought to have been done.”
Meanwhile, two Delhi-based journalists have been arrested while covering the Farmers protest, Mandeep Punia, a freelance journalist detained by police late Saturday night while covering the farmers’ protests at Singhu, has been sent to 14-day judicial custody, according to his lawyer.
The Police have also registered a case against Rajdeep Sardesai and the wire editor, Sidharth Vardarajan which has evoked widespread condemnation and anger from various quarters of the society.