‘MeToo’ movement: Editors Guild comes out in support of women journalists

The Editors Guild of India has come out in support of the women journalists who have named journalist-turned-politician MJ Akbar in the growing #MeToo movement, accusing him of sexual harassment.

The top body of editors representing the media industry expressed its concern over Mr Akbar’s defamation case against one of the journalists, Priya Ramani, and said he should withdraw the case.

Incidentally, MJ Akbar was the president of the Editors Guild. The Editors Guild assured its full support to the other women journalists in case he decides to sue them.

Akbar has sued journalist Priya Ramani, the first woman to name him in the #MeToo movement in India, accusing her of “intentionally putting forward malicious, fabricated and salacious” allegations to harm his reputation.

The former editor of newspapers like The Telegraph and the Asian Age was named by Ms Ramani in a tweet on October 8.

She said MJ Akbar was the man she had written about in a magazine article a year ago, when the Harvey Weinstein scandal in the US set off an avalanche of #MeToo allegations.