Manipur scribes cease work, protest against NIA’s harassment

Scribes in Manipur on Thursday ceased their works for the day and staged a sit-in-protest against the alleged ill-treatment meted out by National Investigation Agency (NIA) to president of All Manipur Working Journalists’ Union (AMWJU) Wangkhemcha Shamjai.
Owing to the cease work strike, local cable TV networks suspended broadcasting news while evening dailies failed to hit the stands.
No dailies will hit the stands tomorrow as media houses decided not to bring out Friday’s issue following the cease work strike of the scribes.
All Manipur Working Journalists’ Union (AMWJU), Editors’ Guild Manipur (EGM) and Manipur Hill Journalists’ Union (MHJU) called for the cease work in protest against the alleged harassment meted out to AMWJU president Wangkhemcha Shamjai by NIA after he was summoned at its office in Imphal on Tuesday (August 2).
Scribes under the joint aegis of the three major bodies staged the sit-in-protest in Imphal’s Keishampat Junction.
“Stop harassing media”, “Don’t interfere with the freedom of media”, “Stop intimidating media”, etc. read the placards displayed during the protest.
The NIA summoned AMWJU president Wangkhemcha Shamjai on Tuesday and interrogated him for hours.
Shamjai alleged that he was harassed and hurled with uncomfortable queries not related to any case.
Regarding the alleged harassment meted out to the AMWJU president, the three major bodies of the scribes had also submitted memorandums to the Union home minister, Manipur governor, Manipur chief minister, Press Council of India (PCI) and Indian Journalists’ Union (IJU).
They also submitted a copy of the memorandum to the president of BJP Manipur Pradesh, the ruling party.
EGM president Khogendro Khondram said that NIA had summoned the AMWJU president to take his statement in connection with a case on August 2.
The AMWJU president was detained from 10 am till 5pm without being attended by any of the officials of the NIA except for asking him questions not related to the case.
The NIA official asked many questions related to the works of the journalists allegedly interfering with journalists’ freedom of press.
It was an act of giving metal harassment meted out to journalists of the state, he said.
The EGM president drew their attention not to repeat such unfortunate incidents in future.