IMPHAL. September 4: Irom Sharmila who was produced at the Court of the Judicial Magistrate 1st Class, Imphal East at Lamphel said that a true revolutionary movement should be aimed at preserving independence and this means that editorial rights and the freedom of the media should be respected. “The media which is the fourth pillar should be allowed to function freely and should not be dictated and threatened,” said the anti AFSPA campaigner to this IFP reporter.
Condemning the act of threatening scribes and newspaper distributors by terming it as a vested interest of pseudo-revolutionaries, Sharmila continued, “The contribution of the media towards the society need not be detailed and the paramount importance given to the responsibility of scribes should be acknowledged by all. The present threat to scribes and the distributors should be taken back by the concerned group.”
Sharmila mentioned that AFSPA is also imposed at Jammu and Kashmir but crimes like fake encounter, rapes, violence to the public is perpetrated more at Manipur.
She lamented the fact that the protest against the draconian act is represented mostly by herself and there is no corroborative movement against removing AFSPA. “ I have been on a hunger strike for the past 12 years and feel that the protest has only been left to me to take on. This is sad,” she said while mentioning on the need of taking up an united effort to get rid of AFSPA.