Editors Guild concerned over summons by Assam police to The Wire’s senior journalists

NEW DELHI: The Editors Guild of India has expressed deep concerned over media reports that the Assam Police have summoned two senior journalists — Siddharth Varadarajan, Founding Editor of The Wire, and Karan Thapar, Consulting Editor of The Wire — to Guwahati following the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against them for allegedly endangering the sovereignty of India.

The Guild noted that summons to Varadarajan and Thapar to appear before the Crime Branch office in Guwahati’s Panbazar on August 22, comes just days after the Supreme Court granted Varadarajan and others protection against any “coercive action” by the Assam Police in connection with another FIR lodged over an article published by The Wire.

It is not yet clear whether the latest FIR is also linked to the same article, which critiqued the government over Operation Sindoor, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

“As with the earlier FIR registered at Morigaon Police Station, the latest case also invokes Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which pertains to acts endangering the sovereignty, unity, and integrity of India. In addition to Section 152, the FIRs invoke several other provisions: Section 196 (communal enmity), Section 197(1)(d)/3(6) (false propaganda), Section 353 (public mischief), Section 45 (abetment), and Section 61 (criminal conspiracy),” the Guild said.

“The Guild is extremely disturbed by this continuing trend of law enforcement agencies across states registering FIRs against journalists by

invoking multiple provisions of the criminal code. This practice effectively muzzles independent journalism, as the very process of responding to notices, summons, and prolonged judicial proceedings becomes a form of punishment,’’ the Guild’s statement said.

“The invocation of Section 152 of the BNS is particularly troubling, since it is widely regarded as a repackaged version of the draconian sedition law (Section 124A of the IPC), which the Supreme Court ordered to be kept in abeyance in May 2022 in response to petitions filed

by the Guild and others challenging its constitutionality,” it said.

“Rather than meaningfully engage with the concerns raised by the Court, the government reintroduced the provision in broader form under the new law. Section 152 of the BNS now extends beyond speech acts (written or oral) to also include the alleged use of financial means to pursue certain objectives,” the statement said.

“While laws must always be respected and upheld, they must not be misused to suppress journalism,” the Editors Guild said while urging the Assam Police to refrain from actions that could cast even the slightest doubt on their true intent.