Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it is zooming in on Manipur, โ€œwhere press freedom violations are on the rise and where journalists are increasingly being persecuted by the local government, parliament and judiciaryโ€.

RSF said this days after Grace Jajo, a freelance reporter, who often covers debates in Manipurโ€™s Legislative Assembly in Imphal, was prevented from entering the press gallery during the recent Assembly session over a Facebook post, sharing an article published by a local news website.

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The Paris-based watchdog called on the local authorities to stop trying to โ€œintimidate reportersโ€.

Grace Jajo is a freelance reporter who often covers debates in Manipurโ€™s legislative assembly in the stateโ€™s capital, Imphal, and who had a pass for the press gallery. But, on 22 February, โ€œthe security guards came for me, threatening to evict me by forceโ€ she told RSF.

โ€œAt one point, I was surrounded by armed guards on all sides (โ€ฆ) I was totally shocked.โ€

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After confiscating her pass and escorting her to the exit, โ€œthey said they had an order to not let me in,โ€ Jajo said, โ€œI asked to see the order but the order never came. While I waited, they treated me very badly, insulted me and finally asked me to vacate the entrance.โ€

The next day, Jajo learned that the assemblyโ€™s secretariat was accusing her of โ€œintentionally trying to malign the official procedureโ€ and โ€œbreach of privilegeโ€ โ€“ a charge inherited from the colonial era that is supposed to protect the legislature from a threat to its independence.

โ€œThe pretext was her Facebook post sharing an article that a local news website, The Frontier Manipur, had published on 20 February, in which it exercised its right to respond to the accusations of โ€˜breach of privilegeโ€™ and โ€˜contempt of the Houseโ€™ that the assemblyโ€™s secretariat had brought against the site in connection with one of its articles. The article, about an address that Manipur chief minister Nongthombam Biren Singh had delivered to the assembly, took all of its information from an official press release,โ€ the RSF said.

Also read: Foundation for Media Professionals expresses concern over privilege motion against Manipur journalist

โ€œGrace Jajo was humiliated despite having all the necessary journalistic credentials,โ€ The Frontier Manipur executive editor Paojel Chaoba told RSF.

โ€œShe was not given any explanation for not being allowed to enter the assembly. It was a shoot-first-ask-questions-later situation.โ€

โ€œBy using such methods to target journalists it doesnโ€™t like, the assemblyโ€™s secretariat is behaving in an absolutely unacceptable manner for an institution that claims to safeguard democracy,โ€ said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSFโ€™s Asia-Pacific desk.

โ€œWe call on assembly speaker Yumnam Khemchand Singh to immediately drop the absurd proceedings against Grace Jajo and The Frontier Manipur. And more generally, in the light of the steady decline in press freedom in Manipur, we caution chief minister N. Biren Singh against any future violation of journalistsโ€™ rights and we remind him that he used to be a reporter before he entered politics,โ€ Bastard said.

On the day that Jajo was notified of the charges against her, February 23, two other journalists, Kirmil Soraisam, the director of the 7Salai news site, and Rabi Takhellambam, one of his reporters, were arrested on a โ€œfake newsโ€ accusation over a small error in a story that had been quickly corrected.

They were released on bail three days later but are now charged with disturbing public order, criminal intimidation and defamation, RSF said.

Chaoba and one of his editors, Dhiran Sadokpam, were arrested a month before, on January 17, and were held overnight after The Frontier Manipur published an op-ed about the โ€œarmed revolutionary movementโ€ in Manipur.

In a press release on December 1, RSF defended another target of the judicial harassment to which The Frontier Manipur is being subjected.

โ€œIt was one of its journalists, video presenter Kishorechandra Wangkem, who had been held for the past two months. He was freed on bail ten days later but continues to be the target of constant judicial harassment. He has repeatedly been arrested since 2018, when he criticized Manipurโ€™s chief minister and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, both members of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling party at national and state level,โ€ RSF said.

โ€œEven talking about press freedom is becoming problematic,โ€ RSF said.

After Wangkem dedicated the โ€œKhanesi Neinasiโ€ programme on February 16 to freedom of expression, it was threatened with judicial proceedings on March 1.

โ€œManipurโ€™s state government thereby became the first in India to take advantage of a new federal code of conduct for online content that gives local officials extensive powers to restrict press freedom. After a national outcry, Manipurโ€™s authorities backed down and withdrew their threat of prosecution,โ€ it added.