Editors Guild condemn attack on Ketkar's residence
The Editors Guild strongly condemned the attack on the residence of Kumar Ketkar, the Editor of Marathi daily Loksatta.
The Editors Guild of India on Thursday strongly condemned the attack on the residence of Kumar Ketkar, the Editor of Marathi daily Loksatta, by activists of a little known outfit.
The Guild also demanded stringent action against those who vandalised the residence of Ketkar. Activists of the Shiv Sangram Sangathan attacked Ketkar's residence for an editorial critical of the Maharashtra government's decision to erect a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji off Marine Drive in Mumbai at a cost of Rs 100 crore.
"In a democracy every editor and journalist has the unfettered right to express his or her views on public issues," the Guild said in a statement here.
Such independent views need not necessarily meet the approval of the dominant groups and personalities in government and politics and they cannot attack the editor for expressing such views, said the statement issued by Alok Mehta and KS Sachidananda Murty, the President and the Secretary General of the Guild respectively.
The Guild expects stringent action against those who vandalised the residence of Ketkar, they said. "The Maharashtra Government should ensure that no one, however powerful they might be, would threaten the freedom of the press," the statement said.