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New Delhi/ Chandigarh/Hyderabad, The Indian Journalists Union today condemned the “deliberate targeting of journalists” by the Chandigarh police with water cannons, while they were covering political parties’ protest against the Union government.
According to IJU affiliate, Punjab and Chandigarh Journalists Union, both journalists and photo-journalists, who were covering the protest on Wednesday by the Lok Insaf party demanding royalty over Punjab water being used by Rajasthan, were injured, two of them seriously, following the police firing water cannons at them. PCUJ president and Press Council Member Balwinder Singh Jammu, accused the police of doing so deliberately so that police action against the protestors would not be telecast or broadcast to the public.
In a statement, IJU president and PCI Member D Amar and Secretary General and IFJ Vice President Sabina Inderjit, said the police deliberately targeting the journalists amounted to stopping them from carrying out their duties and in effect must be viewed as an attack on press freedom. The IJU demanded that the administration desist from trying to muzzle the press and that an inquiry be instituted against the police action. The IJU has also written to the Press Council asking it to take suo moto notice of the incident.
