The South Asian Women in Media (India) strongly condemns the FIR filed against senior journalist Saba Naqvi for what is purportedly a meme created by someone and which was openly shared over social media and which she had posted on her Twitter account. Naqvi has since deleted that tweet.
SAWM is of the opinion that Naqvi has clearly been unfairly singled out and targeted and therefore calls upon the Delhi Police to stop this impunity and immediately withdraw the specious FIR filed against her.
Since Naqvi did not create the meme for which she is accused of promoting enmity between different groups under Section 153 IPC and Section 295 (deliberate acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class), and 505 (inducing to commit an offence against the State or against the public tranquillity) of the IPC and since she was not the only one to share the tweet, SAWM feels she is being singled out unfairly.
Naqvi has been a panellist on several television programmes and has always been known for her measured views.
SAWM condemns these attempts by the state to silence voices of dissent and also the propensity to file criminal cases against journalists on flimsy grounds merely because of reportage that shows the state in a bad light. This is an assault on free speech and India’s democratic traditions.