Editors Guild demands immediate release of Muhammad Zubair

New Delhi: The Editors Guild of India issued a statement condemning the arrest of Muhammad Zubair, co-founder of the fact-checking site AltNews, by the Delhi Police on June 27 for hurting the religious sentiments through one of his tweets from 2018.

Zubair was arrested on Monday under the sections 153 and 295 of the Indian Penal Code, the press statement of the Editor's guild stated, "In a bizarre turn of events, Zubair was called in for questioning by the special cell of Delhi Police in a case from 2020, for which he already had a protection against arrest from the Delhi High Court. However, when Zubair responded to the summons, he was arrested in relation to a criminal investigation initiated earlier in the month, after an anonymous twitter handle alleged that Zubair's 2018 post was hurting religious sentiments."

"Zubair has been arrested under sections 153 and 295 of the Indian Penal Code. This is extremely disturbing because Zubair and his website AltNews have done some exemplary work over the past few years in identifying fake news and countering disinformation campaigns, in a very objective and factual manner," the statement further added.

The statement is signed by EGI president Seema Mustafa, general secretary Sanjay Kapoor and treasurer Anant Nath with EGI demanding an immediate release of Muhammad Zubair. 

"EGI demands that the Delhi Police should immediately release Muhammad Zubair. This is necessary to buttress the commitments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the G7 meet in Germany to ensure a resilient democracy by protecting online and offline content," read the official statement.

Here is a copy of the statement