The Editors Guild of India has expressed deep disquiet over the continued misuse of the law that treats defamation as a criminal offence.The Guild is concerned that this provision in the Indian Penal Code is being employed by many litigants to intimidate journalists writing on matters of public interests and as a coercive tool to dissuade and even threaten the media from carrying out its legitimate responsibilities.

The Supreme Court, last year, had upheld the constitutional validity of criminal defamation law, saying the right to free speech was not an absolute right.