The Editors Guild of India on Tuesday urged political parties not to harass or intimidate journalists and media houses for doing their job.

The appeal came after Union women and child development minister Smriti Irani was caught on camera threatening a journalist in Amethi, and CPM student arm SFI filed an FIR against a reporter in Left-ruled Kerala.

Referring to the two incidents, which involved politicians from the Left and the Right, the Guild said: “This trigger-happy approach to browbeat and harass reporters and news camera persons undermines the freedom of the press.”

The Guild stressed that reporters are on the ground to ask questions and that threats of action from political leaders and law-enforcement agencies went against democratic principles.

It also reminded media houses of their fundamental duty to protect the journalists working with them, whether reporter or stringer. It said they “should not cow down to any kind of political browbeating”.

Irani was filmed telling a journalist that she would call the newspaper’s owners.

“The minister’s threat to call newspaper owners and couch journalistic questioning as an affront to the people was a clear intimidatory tactic,” the Guild said.

“Dainik Bhaskar has subsequently claimed that the journalist was not associated with it. However, another journalist associated with the media house who was at the spot as well has been relieved of his duties.”

In Kerala, a senior woman journalist working with Asianet has been named as an accused in an FIR. She broadcast what seems to be an inaccurate report about an SFI leader, but with no apparent malicious intent.