The Mumbai Police on Friday registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Republic TV’s editorial team for allegedly committing offences amounting to incitement, disaffection among members of the police force against Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh and for defaming the Mumbai police’s image.
The FIR, registered at the N.M. Joshi Marg station, invokes sections of the Police (Incitement to Disaffection) Act, 1922, and claims the editors and staff concerned “attempted to incite disaffection” among members of the police force and defamed Mumbai Police with the report.
“In a brazen abuse of office, the Mumbai Police has booked the ‘editorial staff and newsroom in-charge for the concerned report getting aired and others’.
This booking of all journalists if a news media organisation, left unchecked will have a chilling effect on democracy,” a statement released by the news channel read.
The FIR said that officials at the Social Media Lab found that on October 10, Republic TV telecast a show under the segment Biggest Story Tonight, with the caption: “Revolt Against Param Bir Singh? Senior officer part of the probe gives details”.
“For the first time in Indian history, an FIR has been filed against every editorial staff of a network. This means that 1000 employees of the Republic Media Network have been booked by the Mumbai police. They (Mumbai police) say ‘How can you air the Hansa report” and we said, ‘we will not reveal our sources’. Hence half an hour ago, Param Bir Singh instructed to file a case against all Republic editorial staff. The staff who are part of the production team, graphics team, promos team – we produce the news together. Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, let there be a one-on-one now,” said Arnab.
Incidentally, on October 22, Republic World website ran a story: “Revolt Brewing Within Mumbai Police Against Param Bir Singh; Officers Lash Out Off Record”.
The report said that a senior officer in the Mumbai Police had claimed that Singh was “bent on destroying the credibility of the force”, and admitted that the force was pursuing its chief’s agenda against Republic TV in the Television Rating Points scam case.
The news item telecast on October 10 also claimed that Singh has been tarnishing the image of the Mumbai Police and that his orders are not acceptable to junior officers, the Hindustan Times reported.