“Fake news finding space in Imphal media” is continuously deepening the ethnic divide in Manipur, said a fact-finding report issued by the Editors’ Guild of India on Saturday. The state’s media outlets, which are concentrated in Imphal Valley, have “seemingly become Meitei media”, the report said, listing out several fake news articles. These included articles published in The Sangai Express, Imphal Free Press and The Frontier Express.
Besides accusing Manipur media of writing “one-sided reports” and “reversing” facts to forge a common ethnic narrative in favour of the Meiteis, the report alleged that these media outlets also vilified the security forces and peddled “constant propaganda”, especially against the Assam Rifles. “The state government also tacitly supported this vilification by allowing Manipur Police to file an FIR against the Assam Rifles, suggesting that one hand of the state did not know what the other was doing or this was deliberate action.”
