Journalists protest OSA imposition

Journalists, from both the print and electronic media, held a demonstration in Ahmedabad on Monday, to protest against the use of the Official Secrets Act (OSA) by the government against three publications.

The state government filed cases against three newspapers under the OSA, for publishing transcripts of a conversation between a police officer and a Dawood Ibrahim aide. The three newspapers against which cased have been filed are The Indian Express, Gujarat Samachar and Sandesh.

The newspapers had published the transcripts of conversation between superintendent of police (CID Intelligence) Rajkumar Pandian and Mammumiya, an accused in the 1993 RDX landing case in Gujarat. In the transcripts, Mammumiya refers to his conversation with the IPS officer Kuldip Sharma, who now is inspector general of police (CID).

Meanwhile, the Congress has taken up the issue and has warned the state govt. "not to terrorise the media" by filing cases against newspapers under the OSA.

When contacted, state law minister Ashok Bhatt said that the minister of state for home Amit Shah was the right person to comment. Shah could not be reached for comments despite several attempts.