The Saturday morning came up with a shocker for people of Tripura as some miscreants forcefully took away the newspaper copies of ‘Pratibadi Kalam’, a vernacular daily, meant for distribution in several subdivisions of Gomati and South Tripura district. Miscreants seized the copies from the bus that was carrying the morning daily at Rajarbag Motor Stand in Udaipur under Gomati and threw the papers onto roads, ditches, while some were burnt. They also attacked the local agent.
It was alleged that the offensive against the newspaper was carried out since it had been carrying out some corruption news against a department under the minister of a local MLA. The incident immediately sent a shock wave and all considered it direct attack on freedom of media. An FIR was also lodged.
Soon media persons cutting across their affiliations and differences got together and condemned the incident. Members from the Forum For Development and Protection of Media Community (FDPMC) and Assembly of Journalists met in deputation at Police Headquarters. Representatives from both the organizations met DIG Soumitra Dhar appraising the situation one after another.
Some demonstrations were also staged while social media went aflame on the issue and condemnation poured in from all sections.
The ruling BJP which had of late been caught in the eye of the storm of media related issues, did not delay to distance itself and squarely blamed the incident.
While Pranajit Singha Roy, minister of Agriculture, tourism etc instantly posted condemnation of the incident on his Facebook wall, BJP president Dr Manik Saha and South Tripura district president also came out with condemnation.
As soon as Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb came to know abot the incident, he talked to Pratibadi Kalam editor Anal Roy Chowdhury over phone and assured him of stern action against the culprits. Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath also spoke to the editor.
Meanwhile, media fraternity across the State condemned the incident. FDPMC members led by Pranab Sarkar went to Udaipur and talked to the local police super regarding the matter. They had also visited the spot of occurrence.
On the other hand, the Assembly of Journalists held a press conference here in Agartala Press Club and said that such attacks on the media further weakened the democratic formation of the state.
