Newspaper editors in Manipur boycott Chief Minister, Ministers

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IMPHAL, FEBRUARY 21

The Editors’ Guild Manipur (EGM) has announced to boycott the Chief Minister of Manipur, his Council of Ministers and all ruling MLAs. The step to boycott the Chief Minister, his Council of Ministers and the ruling MLAs has been taken following the lapse of the deadline (February 20) set by EGM after a series of meeting of the EGM which had ‘patiently waited’ for the Chief Minister to fulfill assurances given by him on charter of demands of the EGM. The EGM demanded the removal of Th Syamo, APO (Press), DIPR for verbally assaulting and physically threatening president of EGM A Mobi when he visited Syamo’s office along with the Secretary General of EGM Yumnam Rupachandra. As no action has been initiated the EGM has been boycotting the DIPR to send a message to the government. “However, despite three months of waiting and having had several rounds of talks with the Chief Minister, he is yet to take any tangible action,” the EGM statement said. The EGM once again reiterates its demand for the removal of the Syamo from the post of APO (Press) and replace him with someone who respects the press and media. The EGM also reminded the Chief Minister to take up necessary action to address the charter of demands including making an advertising policy as soon as possible to enable EGM to lift the boycott.
The EGM said it is saddened by the fact that it has to resort to boycotting the above mentioned functionaries of the government to draw the attention of the government to ‘our grievances.’
As per decision of the EGM, fresh negotiation can only begin after Mr. Syamo is removed and not before that. As per the boycott, affiliates of EGM will not give any coverage to the press meet, functions, clarifications, achievements, tours etc. of the functionaries mentioned above till an understanding is reached upon.
It then appealed to the public to bear with the editors during boycott.