From Bhupen Goswami
Guwahathi: Senior Meghalaya journalist and Shillong Times editor Patricia Mukhim has resigned from her membership in the Editors Guild of India. He alleges that this large institution of journalists simply defends the celebrity journalists. The president, citing the example of the arrest of TV anchor Arnab Goswami, said how the institution had issued a swift statement in the case and condemned the case while his case was completely silent. Last week, the Meghalaya High Court had refused to comment or order a complaint filed in the police over a Facebook post in July.
Mukhim claimed that he had briefed the Editors Guild about the case in detail. “I want to resign from my membership,” he wrote in his letter. There are many reasons behind this. Firstly, as a journalist, I do not fall under the category of celebrity journalists whose newspapers are read a lot, or whose websites are very popular. I come from an isolated place geographically and also in the institution’s hirarthe. I shared this order of the High Court with the Guild with the expectation that they would, at least, issue a statement condemning it, but there is complete silence on the part of the authorities. In a letter to the newly appointed chairman of the Guild, Seema Mustafa, he said, “Ironically, the Guild had issued a statement condemning the arrest of Arnab Goswami (who is not even a member of the Guild), in a case that had nothing to do with journalism, but was accused of being provoked to suicide.
According to me, the guild is working to save celebrity editors/anchors and deliberately ignore the voice of one of its own members. On July 4, Patricia Mukhim, in a Facebook post, criticised the Laushotun Village Council for the incident in which some people were attacked by five boys in the basketball court. There was no arrest in this case. Mukhim had demanded meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and local administration to take action against the accused from The Dobar Schong. The Village Council had lodged an FIR accusing them of instigating communal sentiments. Based on this, the police had registered a criminal case against him. He was also booked for defamation. He reached the High Court against it. However, the High Court had refused to dismiss his case. He is now preparing to go to the Supreme Court against the order of the High Court.
