Calling it "extremely disturbing", the Editors Guild of India has ondemned the arrest of fact-checker Mohammed Zubair and demanded his immediate release.
Pointing to commitments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the G7 meeting in Germany to ensure a resilient democracy by protecting online and offline content, the journalist body said his release would support India's position.
Zubair was arrested for a 2018 tweet that police say was "highly provocative and more than sufficient to incite feelings of hatred" among people.
The Guild said Zubair and his website AltNews have done some exemplary work over the past few years in identifying fake news and countering disinformation campaigns, in a very objective and factual manner.
Slamming "those who use disinformation as a tool to polarise the society and rake nationalist sentiments", the Editors Guild of India further stated that AltNews' "alert vigilance" was resented by them.
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