A three-member fact-finding team of the Editors Guild visited Manipur and prepared a report on the violence that had marred Manipur. In their report the EGI levelled some serious allegations against the local media and the majority community (Meitei). The EGI mentioned in its report that “…Local news gathered without any communication links was not sufficient to give a balanced view of the situation”.
Manipur Journalist Unions describe the report by EGI as biased
Terming the report by Editors Guild of India as biased, exaggerated and wrong representation, the All Manipur Working Journalists Union (AMWJU) and Editors Guild Manipur (EGM) vehemently opposed it and condemned the EGI for their intensious attempt. In a 15 point statement the AMWJU and EGM has asked EGI to clarify their report. The journalist organisation asked EGI how the editor’s body fact finding committee came to a conclusion on Manipur violence in merely four days.
AMWJU and EGM give strong rebuttal to EGI’s report
The AMWJU and EGM issued a statement in which it has categorically said that the EGI’s report is factually incorrect.
- In the statement AMWJU and EGM stated, EGI claim Meitei’s were the initiators of the riots on May 3. It is surprising how they were able to establish this in four days even though there is a Supreme Court-appointed fact-finding committee looking into this same matter and are still not able to come out with the entire details yet though it began work on August 7, 2023.
- The EGI also refers to a certain Hill Area Committee Act 1972, but no such Act is in existence. The last reserved forest declared in Manipur was in 1990 according to Manipur Forest Department records. GI also stated that these declarations were meant to evict Kuki villages, but records of eviction by the Government available with the Manipur Forest Department show otherwise. From October 2015 to April 2023, houses evicted from “reserved forest” and “protected forest” show there were 59 Kuki houses, 143 Meitei houses, 137 Meitei Pangal (Muslim) houses, 38 Naga houses, and 36 Nepali houses, totaling 413 houses. AMWJU and EGI alleged that the EGI fact-finding team did not even bother to confirm these data from the relevant authorities and instead apparently chose to depend on hearsay.
- The EGI report also claims that the State Government has withdrawn from the tripartite Suspension of Operations agreement with the Kukis. But Suspension o f Operation (Soo) agreement with all 25 groups are still intact. The EGI again did not bother to cross check this before making its allegation. In reference to the outrageous video of Kuki women being paraded naked, it seems the EGI did not even confirm whether there were two or three women for the EGI report, two in some references and three in some other in the same breath. It also says the younger woman was raped on video. Condemning the incident once again the AMWJU and EGM said the EGI chose to dramatise the tragic episode more than what was actually in the video to suit its motivated and skewed narrative.
- Furthermore, in photo of a burning building, the caption in the EGI report identifies it is a Kuki house burning, but this is the Forest Office at Maultam at Churachandpur, torched by a Kuki mob on May 3, right in the middle of the ATSUM peace rally at about 12.15 pm, but EGI choose not to cross check it, the journalist associations of Manipur mentioned in their statement.
- The EGI in its report also claims that on the night of May 3, there was total destruction of Kuki-Zo churches, houses and other properties in Meitei dominated areas. But the fact is that on May 3, riots in Imphal were very limited. It was in the next few days that riots intensified and spread, the statement reads. EGI in its report claims most of the newspapers and news channels in the Imphal valley took dictations from the Chief Minister office. AMWJU and EGM stated that this is a damaging charge but without evidence and asked EGI to prove it.
- Moreover the journalist organisations of Manipur said that the EGI report has no reflection at all of all the material supplied to them during two-hour meetings with the AMWJU, EGM and MHJU representatives at the Manipur Press Club in Imphal. The EGI report for instance is silent on the attack on reporters by Kuki villagers after they were invited by an Indian Army commander at Henjang village near the 57 Mountain Division headquarters at Leimakhong although they were briefed of this unfortunate incident in the same meeting.
Question mark on the cover photograph of the EGI report
The statement by the Manipur journalist unions further said that the cover photograph of the EGI report also seems to be created with the intent to colour the readers’ vision. It shows the “Wall of Remembrance” in Churachandpur, which has no direct relations with the present crisis. The intent seems to be to show the Kuki-Zo communities as endemically victimised.
Keeping in view these grave misrepresentations in their report, the AMWJU and EGM urged the EGI to issue a clarification or else both the journalist associations of Manipur will file a legal damage suit against EGI, the statement reads.
Manipur govt files FIR against members of Editors Guild of India
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh said on Monday that the state government has filed an FIR against the members of the Editors Guild who are trying to create more clashes in the state of Manipur.
The case has been filed against the three members – Seema Guha, Bharat Bhushan and Sanjay Kapoor said the Manipur Chief Minister. The Editors Guild is yet to respond to the FIR filed against its members.
Addressing the conference, CM Biren Singh said “I give a warning to the members of the Editors Guild, Who constituted them? if you want to do something, then do visit the spot, see the ground reality, meet the representatives of all communities and then publish what you found. Otherwise, meeting some sections only and coming to a conclusion is highly condemnable.”
“The State government has filed an FIR against the members of the Editors Guild who are trying to create more clashes in the state of Manipur,” CM added.
On September 2 the Editors Guild of India had released a report of its ‘Fact-Finding Mission on Media’s Reportage of the Ethnic Violence in Manipur’.
In its report which was posted on the Guilds social media handle on X the Guild had claimed “There are clear indications that the leadership of the state became partisan during the conflict. It should have avoided taking sides in the ethnic conflict but it failed to do its duty as a democratic Government….”
On September 1, 2023, Lt. Gen PC Nair DG Assam Rifles had said “Unlike in the past, Manipur is witnessing an “unprecedented” situation currently due to the ethnic clashes owing to the fact that both communities have large number of weapons putting the state in the spot like never before.”
