‘Brazen overreach’: Editors Guild urges Centre to unblock Tamil news site ‘Vikatan’

The Editors Guild of India on Tuesday urged the Union government to unblock the Tamil news website Vikatan, describing the move as a “brazen instance of overreach by the authorities”.

On Sunday, Tamil media group Vikatan said that several of its users were unable to access its website after it published a cartoon in the digital magazine Vikatan Plus depicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with his hands and legs chained, sitting across from United States President Donald Trump.

Published on February 10, the cartoon came against the backdrop of the US deporting several Indians as part of Trump’s wider crackdown on undocumented migrants.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Tamil Nadu unit chief K Annamalai had complained about the cartoon to the Press Council of India and Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting L Murugan, reported The Indian Express.

“The Editors Guild of India is deeply shocked by the recent blocking of the Tamil magazine web portal Vikatan.com, without any prior due process, by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology over the publication of a cartoon depicting the prime minister,” the press body stated on Tuesday.

It added: “Cartoons have always been a legitimate means of journalistic endeavour and the sudden blocking of the Vikatan website is a brazen instance of overreach by the authorities.”

The guild also said…

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