BREAKING: Padma Shri awardee Patricia Mukhim resigns from Editors Guild of India

SHILLONG: Padma Shri awardee Patricia Mukhim, who is also the Editor of 'The Shillong Times' today resigned from The Editors' Guild of India over the journalist body's alleged silence in a case registered against her.

"I am resigning because the Guild is very discriminatory -- while it takes up some cases, it does not pay heed to others. There has been complete silence on their part in regards to my case, which is rather unfortunate. I don't care what their stand is on my resignation. They were quick to take up Arnab Goswami's case and he is not even a member. They have not even said that they are sorry for not taking up my case which is what made me resign," Mukhim told Inside Northeast, adding that she will now be approaching the Supreme Court with the case.

"I see this as a classic case of the Guild playing to the gallery to defend celebrity editors/anchors whose voices matter while choosing to deliberately ignore a plea (unstated) from its one of its members. Clearly, this is also a case of prejudice and a deliberate attempt to push those in the margins even further away so that they disappear completely from the national discourse (since the Guild is a national association of editors) and leave them to deal with the matter in their personal capacity. A Facebook post is also another form of media to draw attention to a serious issue. It may not be a purely ‘journalistic’ pursuit but it still is a platform of communication which is taken seriously by the powers that be, hence an FIR being filed because of it. As such, it is no longer tenable for me to be part of this hallowed group of editors whose loyalties are to those that occupy a certain elite space. In fact, I feel completely out of place; almost an outlier in the Guild. Kindly therefore accept my resignation today, November 16, 2020," Mukhim wrote in her resignation letter to the guild.

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Patricia Mukhim also gave the example of how the journalists' body responded with "alacrity", and issued a statement condemning TV news anchor Arnab Goswami's arrest but did not issue any statement in her case.

Last week, the Meghalaya High Court had refused to act over a police complaint filed against Patricia for a Facebook post in which she had demanded justice for non-tribals beaten up during a brawl.

In the post in question, made against the backdrop of furor over a skirmish between tribals and non-tribals at Lawsohtun the senior journalist stated that since the attackers have not been attacked since 1979, Meghalaya is a “failed state.”

After compaints were raised about the allegedly controversial post, the police registered a criminal case under Section 153A/500/505C IPC against her and also issued a notice under Section 41 A Cr.P.C. In response to this, approached the High Court by filing a petition under Section 482 CrPC.

Mukhim had contended that she had only expressed her concerns regarding the handling of the case by the police and the Dorbar Shnong and has only expressed hope that justice would be dealt in this particular instance.

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