Ghaziabad: Five journalists have been booked by the Uttar Pradesh police in Bijnor on Friday for circulating fake news reports. Besides three unidentified reporters, a journalist working with a local daily and another with an electronic news channel have been named in the complaint.
As reported by the Hindu, the FIR named Ashish Tomar and Shakil Ahmed saying they tried to vitiate social amity by circulating fake news about a Valmiki family from Titarwala Basi village under Mandwar police station. The FIR stated that they put ‘house on sale’ on their house after not being allowed to collect water from the village hand pump by an influential Dalit family from the same village.
Saying that the issue had been resolved by the police and the village ‘pradhan’, the police alleged that it was one of the journalists who had put the ‘exodus’ threat on the wall to present the local administration in a bad light.
However, local media persons held a meeting against the police action on Saturday and alleged that the journalists were being targeted for factual reporting. A senior journalist told that the police applied pressure on the Valmiki family to create a false case.