The All Manipur Working Journalists Union (AMWJU) and Editors’ Guild Manipur (EGM), on Thursday, condemned the security forces of preventing the media persons from cover an incident of attack at Sabungkhok Khunou area on 12th October 2023, Thursday.

In a joint statement, the scribes of Manipur had claimed that in a “direct attack on freedom of speech”, the combined troops of the 20 Jat Regiment and 5/4 GR not only prevented a media team consisting of reporters from ISTV, Impact TV, Tom TV, and ISCom from covering the incident but forced them to delete whatever footage was there on their mobiles. Another team of media consisting of Tom TV and Impact TV on the other side of the area was also initially prevented from taking any footage of the incident, it added.

AMWJU and EGM said that the actions of the security forces was an effort to muzzle the press and demand accountability.

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The unions also informed that it would be submitting a memorandum each to the Chairman, Unified Command, Kuldiep Singh (Security Advisor of the CM), and the Governor of Manipur Anusuiya Uikey look into the series of attacks on media since 3rd May 2023, and take appropriate action.

The unions iterated, “media in Manipur has been working in an extremely difficult situation since the present crisis broke out,” and appealed to all security forces not to target or prevent media personnel from performing their legitimate duties.

Fresh gunfire was reported on Thursday in Sabungkhok Khunou in Imphal East District but no definite information is available on incident.