India's Supreme Court orders the release of a journalist detained for defaming BJP leader

<p>India’s Supreme Court has ordered the release of a journalist, Prashant Kanojia, who had posted controversial tweets about Yogi Adityanath, the leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Utter Pradesh current&nbsp;Chief Minister.</p> <p>According to a petition his wife sent to the Supreme Court; Kanojia, age 26, was detained by plainclothed&nbsp;police after he tweeted about a woman claiming to be in love with Utter Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi&nbsp; Adityanath.</p> <p>A further two journalists have been arrested for holding a discussion on the women’s claim about Adityanath in Noida, a city on the outskirts of New Delhi. In Gorakhpur district in Uttar Pradesh, police arrested one person for sharing the tweets&nbsp;by Kanojia.</p> <p>Justice Indira Banerjee argued in favour of Kanojia’s immediate release despite the insistence of a lawyer defending the state government that Kanojia’s post was slanderous. In her response, she questioned the heavy-handed methods of the state government stating, “We can understand that the tweets should not be made. But arresting?”.</p> <p>This decision has drawn widespread criticism from media groups and opposition parties who are concerned that the BJP’s recent landslide victory would enable them to clamp down on dissident&nbsp;press.</p> <p>The Editors Guild of India released a statement which read:</p> <blockquote><p> “Whatever the accuracy of the woman’s claims, to register a case of criminal defamation against the journalists for sharing it on the social media and airing it on a television channel is a brazen misuse of law,” </p></blockquote> <p>In a tweet, Rahul Gandhi, chief of India’s main opposition party in Congress, called Adityanath’s decision foolish and stated:&nbsp;</p> <blockquote><p> “If every journalist who files a false report or peddles fake, vicious RSS/BJP sponsored propaganda about me is put in jail, most newspapers/ news channels would face a severe staff shortage,” </p></blockquote> <p>India is currently ranked 140 out of 180 in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index. Its entry notes that police violence against violence is a pervasive aspect of the country’s press environment.</p> <p>Read more <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-journalist/indian-court-orders…">here</a>&nbsp;and <a href="https://rsf.org/en/india">here.</a></p>