Attacking Journalist Is Favorite Strategy Of Rahul Gandhi, Editor’s Guild

Mumbai : Guild of India has recently issued statement showing there concern over growing practice maligning journalists by labelling them.

The statement came after Congress President Rahul Gandhi criticized the journalist Smitha Prakash on January 1 saying “pliable journalist”, as she took interview of PM Narendra Modi.

While addressing the press conference over Rafale deal, Gandhi said “pliable journalist”. “He [Modi] does not have the guts to come and sit in front of you. And I am coming here, you can ask me any question. You saw the prime minister’s interview yesterday…matlab pliable journalist, she was asking questions and was even giving answers.”

In his statement, the Editor’s Guild expressed concern over Gandhi’s statement saying that he believes that journalists should claim to be not immune to healthy and decent criticism, as well as a ” Favorite strategy “has emerged. Deny them, make representations and scare them.

“We have seen our political class use this for some time now. In the recent past, top BJP leaders as well as those of AAP have used unambiguously abusive expressions such as ‘presstitute’, news-traders, ‘bazaaru’ (saleable commodities) or ‘dalals’ (pimps) for journalists,” the Guild said in a statement.

https://twitter.com/IndEditorsGuild/status/1080825259450761217?s=19

As Rahul criticized the journalist, Smitha also criticised him for his comment calling it a “cheap shot”

“I was asking questions not answering. You want to attack Mr Modi, go ahead but downright absurd to ridicule me,” Prakash tweeted.

https://twitter.com/smitaprakash/status/1080458215081631745?s=19