2002 In 2002, the Editors Guild of India dispatched a three-person delegation to look into the media's role in the
2002 Gujarat riots. Their inquiry discovered that several members of the local (Gujarati language) media were anti-Muslim and had incited violence.
2021 In 2021, EGI demanded a probe by a court-led team, into the death of a journalist during the
Lakhimpur Kheri massacre, a
vehicle-ramming attack and
mob lynching incident during the
farmers’ protest against
the farm laws passed by the BJP led
Union Government. It happened on 3 October 2021 in
Lakhimpur Kheri district,
Uttar Pradesh, India resulting in deaths of eight people and injuries to 10 others. Four protesters and a journalist named Kashyap were run over by the car, three others were lynched by protestors in the subsequent violence. EGI demanded a probe by a court-led team, into the death of a journalist and the incident. EGI stated, "In what is clearly a terror attack meant to spread fear amongst the farmers, the killing of Kashyap raises many questions. The Editors Guild demands that the death of Kashyap be separately probed by a Court-led
special investigation team to ascertain the circumstances of his death and also attempt to recover and use the footage of his camera to build the sequence of events leading to his death. EGI is concerned about the varying versions of the incident in different sections of the media. It is imperative for the media to report the facts and not versions." After the
2021 Tripura riots, a fact-finding team of Supreme Court lawyers visited the area and released a report which highlighted anti-Muslim violence in Tripura. The
Tripura Police filed charges against these lawyers under strict anti terror laws of
Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The police also filed charges under the UAPA against 102 people including some Indian journalists for protesting, or even merely mentioning, the communal violence on social media platforms and asked
Twitter,
Facebook and
YouTube to freeze their accounts. The EGI released a statement, that said "This is an extremely disturbing trend where such a harsh law, where in the processes of investigation and bail applications are extremely rigorous and overbearing, is being used for merely reporting on and protesting against communal violence," The EGI expressed its outrage at the Tripura police for its coercive action against journalists, claiming that it was an attempt by the
Tripura government to divert attention away from its own inability to control violence by the majority religion (Hindu) or to take action against the perpetrators. It criticized the Governments "use of stringent laws like UAPA to suppress reporting on such incidents." The EGI demanded a fair investigation into "the circumstances of the riots instead of penalising journalists and civil society activists". The Guild reaffirmed its earlier request to the Supreme Court that it consider the "unjustifiable" application of laws like UAPA and provide strict guidelines on charging journalists under them.
2022 Tek Fog The Guild cited
The Wire's investigative report on
Tek Fog and said that "several women journalists were subjected to thousands of abusive tweets" to "instill fear in them" and "prevent them from expressing themselves freely and go about their jobs". The Editors Guild of India condemned "the continuing online harassment of women journalists, which includes targeted and organised online trolling as well as threats of sexual abuse." The guild demanded 'urgent steps to break and dismantle this misogynistic and abusive digital eco-system'.
2023 On September 2, 2023, the Editors' Guild of India released a report on the
2023 Manipur Violence after sending a three-member 'fact finding' team to the state in August. The report was criticised as
"false, fabricated and sponsored" by multiple groups. Two Manipur based journalist bodies served legal notices and the Manipur Government filed a FIR against the Guild's president and key members. However, the Supreme Court provided interim protection to the Guild from arrest. In one of the hearings in the Supreme Court, the Guild said that the Army invited it to make an "objective assessment" on the ground in Manipur. On September 15, the Chief Justice of India –
D. Y. Chandrachud said
the Guild may be right or wrong in its report about "partisan media coverage" of the Manipur violence, but it has a right to free speech to put forth its views in print. ==Publications==