SC Bars Assam Police From Arresting Karan Thapar, Siddharth Varadarajan of The Wire

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed coercive action against two senior editors – online news portal, The Wire’s co-founding Editor Siddharth Varadarajan and Consulting Editor Karan Thapar -- who had been booked for sedition by the Assam Police. The court has posted the matter for September 15, according to a report in LiveLaw.

There has been widespread condemnation by journalist bodies as well as several Opposition leaders of the Assam Police for sending summons and arrest threat to the two Delhi-based journalists for a news article.

Incidentally, another senior journalist, Abhisar Sharma, who runs a popular YouTube channel, was also slapped with an FIR on Thursday, alleging acts endangering national unity and sovereignty, promoting enmity between groups and making assertions prejudicial to national integration, for airing a programme on communalism and corruption in Assam. The complaint was filed by a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Journalist Abhisar Sharma

These two back-to-back intimidation of Delhi-based journalists have been condemned by media groups, such as the Mumbai Press Club, The Press Club of India, The Editors Guild of India, Indian Women’s Press Corps, DIGIPUB among others.

In a statement condemning the FIR on Sharma (who was earlier doing a programme with this news portal, too), DIGIPUB, a collective of online news portals and independent journalists alleged that the police “are increasingly being weaponised to silence dissent”.

“To criminalise the work of a respected journalist like Abhisar Sharma is nothing less than an attack on press freedom,” stated the press body,” it said, demanding that the case be immediately dismissed and that “the intimidation of journalists brought to an end”.

DIGIPUB also called upon the government and judiciary to ensure that repressive laws such as sedition are not misused, adding that “Press freedom is the foundation of a democracy, and we are committed to defending it at all costs.”