Padma Shri journalist quits Editors Guild of India over “favoritism”
Padma Shri journalist Patricia Mukhim quit Editors Guild in rage after alleging that the body only defends "celebrity" journalists.
Shillong, 17/11: Ms. Patricia Mukhim, a veteran journalist and Padma Shri awardee quit the Editors Guild of India alleging that the body only favors and defends their “celebrity” journalists. Ms. Mukhim, who’s the editor of The Shillong Times accused the top journalists’ body of the nation of defending only those journalists who have a fan following and have a huge viewership.
She claims that she informed the body in detail about the case filed against her. According to sources, in her resignation letter, Ms. Mukhim wrote with an example how the EGI turned a deaf ear to her case and yet issued a statement condemning Republic TV’s Editor in Chief Arnab Goswami’s arrest. She was even more furious over the fact that the body decided to ignore her and extend support to a non-member(Arnab Goswami) in abetment to suicide case.
On July 4, 2020, Ms. Mukhim criticized the Lawsohtun village council for failing to identify the masked attackers who attacked five boys at a basketball court in the village via a Facebook post. There were no arrests after this attack on the boys. Ms. Mukhim sought the help of the Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Conrad Sangma, and the local body Dorbar Shnong to take necessary action. The village council registered an FIR against the veteran journalist for allegedly “raking up” statements. The Police filed a criminal case against her following this and she was also accused of defamation. Ms. Mukhim had approached the Meghalaya High Court for the cancellation of the case against her but to no avail.
“I now wish to resign from its membership. There are several reasons for doing so. First, as a journalist, I don’t belong to that august league of celebrity editors whose newspapers are widely read and web-based news portals are hugely popular,………, Ironically, the Guild responded with alacrity and issued a statement condemning Arnab Goswami’s arrest (a non-member), not on grounds of journalistic pursuits but on abetment to suicide case. I see this as a classic case of the Guild playing to the gallery to defend celebrity editors/ anchors whose voices matter while choosing to deliberately ignore a plea (unstated) from its one of its members,” Ms. Mukhim wrote in a strongly-worded letter to the newly elected President of Editors Guild of India Seema Mustafa.
