Manipur Journalists' Union Seeks PUCL's Apology Over Report, Says Will File Criminal Defamation

Manipur's biggest union of journalists has sent a legal notice to a Delhi-based non-profit that had commissioned a report into the Meitei-Kuki ethnic clashes.

The All Manipur Working Journalists Union (AMWJU) in a statement on Thursday said their legal notice to the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) sought "immediate and unconditional withdrawal of its report containing baseless, unverified, and defamatory allegations against the journalists' body, and a public apology."

The AMWJU alleged the PUCL report that claimed to detail media testimonies on the Manipur crisis contained serious and unsubstantiated allegations against the AMWJU. Some of these, the AMWJU said, include the allegation that it has a 'decisive role' in killing or carrying news stories with a partisan bias."

The journalists' body alleged the PUCL report also created a "defamatory imputation that AMWJU is connected to threats and coercion against journalists", and misrepresented "the union's membership norms and the legal media ownership framework, insinuating deliberate exclusion."

The AMWJU said the PUCL report used "communal and irresponsible terminology like 'Imphal-based Meitei media' and falsely accused it of promoting a specific narrative on 'illegal immigrants'."

The AMWJU said it denies all the allegations, and highlighted that membership to the journalists body is governed by its constitution, national laws, state DIPR guidelines and is open to all eligible working journalists as defined by statute and employed by RNI-registered publications, referring to the state's information and publicity department and the Registrar for Newspapers in India.

The journalists body said the allegations in the PUCL report "are based on unverified hearsay and were published in complete violation of the principles of natural justice, as AMWJU was never contacted for its version by the PUCL."

"The reckless publication of these statements has caused immense harm to the reputation and credibility that AMWJU has built over decades as a body dedicated to journalistic ethics and the freedom of the press," lawyer Hijam Chandrakumar said in the statement.

The AMWJU said it will file a civil suit for damages and a criminal case for defamation under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 within 30 days if there's no response from the PUCL on the issues raised by the journalists union.

In the report, the PUCL had also alleged former chief minister N Biren Singh played a partisan role and flagged alleged complicity of state security forces in arming non-state actors and allowing widespread violence to occur unchecked. The Meitei community, however, alleged the report was thin and in some places silent on the involvement of Kuki militants before and after the breakout of ethnic hostilities in May 2023.

The executive summary given at the beginning of the PUCL report concluded that "the violence was not spontaneous but orchestrated, enabled by armed Meitei vigilante groups like Arambai Tenggol and Meitei Leepun, and facilitated by state complicity and law enforcement failures."

The PUCL in its report recommended the setting up of a special investigating team (SIT) under the Supreme Court's supervision to probe all cases of ethnic violence and the role of the security forces. The SIT should investigate incidents of hate speeches which occurred directly prior to and during the conflict and arrest and prosecute the perpetrators, including political figures and state functionaries, and the state government should provide adequate protection to all the witnesses, the PUCL report said.

The team members visited a number of relief camps in Manipur to talk to survivors, including children, women and elderly displaced on account of the conflict. Thereafter, a major part of the report comprised meeting people from Manipur who came to Delhi to speak to the PUCL team.

The PUCL, currently led by rights activist Kavita Srivastava, was formed under the aegis of Jaya Prakash Narayan as People's Union for Civil Liberties and Democratic Rights (PUCLDR) in 1976. It was re-christened as PUCL in 1980.

Media Must Uphold Truth: Manipur Governor

On Wednesday, Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla had asked journalists and broadcasters to uphold truth, ethical values, and maintain restraint in their work. At the Diamond Jubilee celebration of Akashvani Imphal, the Governor said a journalist's pen and a broadcaster's microphone are powerful tools; they can either heal or harm.

"The responsibility to use them wisely rests with every media professional," he said, adding responsible media must inform, enlighten, and unite people, rather than dividing them.