TimesView The Supreme Court has rightly characterised the arrest of Prashant Kanojia as a “glaring case of deprivation of liberty” in its order granting him immediate bail. The issue, however, is larger than just an individual being deprived of his liberty. The arrests of Kanojia as well as two other journalists in this case and the shutting down of the TV channel is a frontal attack on freedom of media. In airing what they did, they may legitimately be accused of bad journalism, but to arbitrarily throw them behind bars reeks of authoritarianism. What the police and government have done is effectively send out a threat to all media – offend us in any way and we will take away your freedom. That is unacceptable in a democracy. The media as an institution must stand united in condemning this irrespective of what they think about the quality of journalism on display. Equally, all other institutions like the judiciary must ensure that such attacks on free media are not allowed to go unchecked and unpunished.

NEW DELHI: Holding right to liberty as sacrosanct and non-negotiable which cannot be trampled on by the government by arresting a citizen without sufficient reason, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed immediate release of a journalist arrested by the Uttar Pradesh government for sharing an objectionable post against chief minister Yogi Adityanath on social media .The apex court criticised the state government's decision to arrest Delhi-based journalist Prashant Kanojia , holding it a clear case of infringement of his liberty as arrest was not needed for the alleged offence. At the very outset, a bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and Ajay Rastogi expressed surprise as to why police had arrested the journalist and sought justification from the state government."Arrest! Arrest!. Liberty has been infringed. We have gone through the record. These things should not have been said (on social media) but arrest! Under what provision he has been arrested," the bench said. Though the court suggested that the posts were inappropriate, it was clear that arrests were unwarranted.The court order came after it heard the case for 40 minutes and directed immediate release of the journalist on bail while the state government is at liberty to conduct a probe and hold trial."We direct that the petitioner's husband be immediately released on bail on conditions to the satisfaction of the jurisdictional chief judicial magistrate. It is made clear that this order is not to be construed as an approval of the posts/tweets in the social media," the court said on a plea moved by Kanojia's wife Jagisha Arora."This order is passed in view of the excessiveness of the action taken. Needless to mention that the proceedings will take their own course in accordance with law," the court said in its order.Additional solicitor general Vikramjit Banerjee, appearing for the state, contended that the arrest had been made under Section 505 of Indian Penal Code for making statements causing public mischief. Placing details of tweets posted by the journalist, the ASG said these did not just pertain to a political personality but there were controversial tweets pertaining to caste and Gods and Goddesses."His tweets are very, very strong and that is why Section 505 was invoked," the ASG said and pleaded the court not to entertain petition of Prashant's wife as the lower court had sent him to judicial custody till June 21 and she can approach the HC against lower court order.The bench, however, rejected the state government's plea and also questioned the lower court's decision of sending the journalist behind bars for eleven days. "Something is so glaring here that the court cannot hold its arms and ask the petitioner to go to high court. Liberty is guaranteed under the Constitution and it is sacrosanct and non-negotiable," the bench said.The court said it is troubled by the question whether a person can be put behind bars in such cases. "We live in a country which has Constitution and it is the best Constitution. We disapprove the deprivation of liberty," it said even as it added, "We are not approving what the journalist has tweeted/posted on social media."At the end of the proceedings, the ASG submitted that the court should ask the journalist to tender an unconditional apology on the line of the apex court’s earlier order in which it had granted bail to a BJP youth wing leader for sharing a widely circulated meme on West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. But the bench was not convinced and said the facts of two cases were very different.Kanojia was picked up by Lucknow Police from his house in Delhi on June 8 and was taken to Lucknow. An FIR was registered against Kanojia by Ashok Gupta, sub-inspector at Hazratganj police station in Lucknow, stating Kanojia posted the message to malign the CM’s image.Read this report in BengaliRead this report in Marathi