January
19, 2013
by Shivam Vij
This release was put out by the INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF
JOURNALISTS on 15 January 2012
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
is extremely concerned to learn of the criminal charges filed against
investigative reporter K.K. Shahina by police in the southern Indian state of
Karnataka.
Shahina, who currently works with the weekly
magazine Open, faces charges under various sections of
the Indian Penal Code, including criminal conspiracy and intimidation of
witnesses with intent to commit a crime. The chargesheet filed in the sessions
court in the district of Kodagu in Karnataka state, also indicts her under
sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, which is most commonly
invoked to deal with terrorist offences.
These charges stem from a story published under
Shahina’s byline in the weekly magazine Tehelka in December 2010, which
appeared to cast doubt on the prosecution of a prominent Islamic cleric and
political figure on terrorism charges.
Shahina, who then worked as correspondent for Tehelka in the state of Kerala, based her story on interviews with key witnesses in the case against Abdul Nasar Mahdani, an Islamic cleric who heads the Peoples’ Democratic Party, active mainly in the state of Kerala. Mahdani has since been arrested and charged by Karnataka police for conspiracy to detonate a series of low-intensity bomb blasts in the state capital city of Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore) in July 2008.
Shahina’s story cited several of the witnesses
named by the Karnataka police as saying that their testimony has been
misinterpreted or distorted in making out the charges against Mahdani.
In March 2011, Shahina was honoured with the
Chameli Devi Jain award for outstanding woman media person. The awards citation
mentioned her investigative work in defence of civil liberties, among other
contributions.
Facing the possibility of arrest since January
2011, Shahina approached the district court in Kodagu for anticipatory bail,
but was turned down. It was only in July 2011 that the Karnataka High Court
granted her provisional immunity from arrest. With charges now formally
registered in the sessions court, she will be required to appeal for renewal of
her bail and also travel from her base of Kochi city in Kerala, to Madikeri in
Kodagu district for every hearing.
The IFJ calls on the authorities in Karnataka state
to reconsider their intent to prosecute Shahina, whose work has been an example
of investigative journalism in the cause of civil liberties.
“We see this prosecution as an instance of seeking
to silence fair and independent reporting through legal injunction. We fear
that the process of the law, with the demands it makes on the time and energy
of the defendant, is often punishment in itself and will severely impair this
journalist’s professional effectiveness.”
tags: Hinduism,
Indian
Muslims, KK Shahina, Press
Freedom, terrorism, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act
http://kafila.org/2013/01/19/on-the-karnataka-polices-charges-against-kk-shahina-ifj/
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