Imphal, October 24 2009: As the Government of Manipur is not ready to address the demand of the journalists working in the state, the apex journalists body of Manipur has taken their complaints to the Prime Minister's level today.

The All Manipur Working Journalists' Uniom (AMWJU) submitted a lengthy memorandum to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh today in connection with the harassment meted out to two Imphal based journalists by Manipur police commandos on the night of October 10 in Imphal.

One Image TV reporter and that of Kangla Pao daily newspaper were detained in an Imphal street in the late night of October 10 by Manipur police commandos.

The two media persons were returning home at the time the security force personnel halted them.

They were traumatised and one of the journalists was kicked in the butt.

All these after the two media persons had identified themselves as journalists.

The police commandos also threatened one of the journalists that he could always be shot and explained later on that he was killed in an encounter and nobody would care about it.

In a memorandum to the Prime Minister, the journalists body complaint that the October 10 incident was intimated to the government authority and demanded prompt action to be taken up against the errant police commandos but till date nothing has comeforth from the government side.

The memorandum also noted the storming of media offices by people from the constituency of Ibobi Singh on the evening of September 25."The most recent cases of intimidation of the press are storming of some media houses in Imphal by goons of chief minister Shri Okram Ibobi home constituency of Thoubal with active support from the state police force on September 25, 2009; and threatening of two journalists returning homes from duty at gun-point on the night of October 10, 2009," said the AMWJU memorandum to the Prime Minister.

In one of the points in the missive to the Prime Minister, the journalists' body accused the state government and said, "The state government had been trying to browbeat journalists in Manipur into submission with threats of de-registration and state action compounded by an arrogant state police force, already infamous with widespread allegations of staging numerous fake encounters, the most recent being the July 23 incident of Imphal wherein a young pregnant housewife and a former militant were mercilessly killed in an alleged fake encounter".

Triggered by the October 10 incident, the journalists in Manipur have been boycotting the government news since October 13 as needed actions have not been taken up by the state government.

The journalists' body earnestly pleaded Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to address the plights of the journalists working in a conflict zone Manipur saying that journalists are facing 'tremendous pressure from both state and non-state actors with little maneuvering space'.

Meanwhile, an AMWJU source said that during a 30-minute meeting with the Governor by the representatives of journalists' body on Saturday, the Governor had assured the visiting media team that in two/three days time he would try his best to resolve the government-media body impasse.

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