A day after a court in Ahmedabad admitted a criminal defamation case filed by BJP president Amit Shah’s son against The Wire, the Editors Guild of India (EGI) criticised the increasing use of criminal defamation lawsuits to threaten journalists and appealed to the Supreme Court to review its decision which upheld the criminality of defamation in a recent judgment.

The organisation’s plea, in the form of a statement on Thursday, comes at a time when shah’s son, Jay Shah, has also filed a Rs 100 crore civil defamation case against The Wire for reporting a story about his business affairs.

“The EGI expresses 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 interest and as a coercive tool to dissuade and even threaten the media from carrying out its legitimate responsibilities,” the statement signed by the EGI president Raj Chengappa, general secretary Prakash Dubey, and treasurer Kalyani Shankar said.