NEW DELHI: Various journalist unions staged a demonstration outside the Press Club of India (PCI) Delhi on Tuesday, October 5, 2021, demanding immediate release of Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan who has been incarcerated for a year and charged with terror offences by UP Police.
“We organised this programme to mark the completion of one year of Kappan being in jail. We are fighting for free media. There should be no curbs on the media if someone is going to a spot to report,” said PCI President Umakant Lakhera.
“Spot and investigative reporting is dying day by day. We are appealing to the highest judiciary of the country to release Kappan and to quash the charges against him,” he added. Members of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ), PCI and the Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) joined the protest.
DUJ general secretary Sujata Madhok said, “…it has been one year since the jailing of Kappan and others who were accompanying him and were not journalists... The judiciary must take action. You cannot indefinitely jail people.”