new delhi the editors guild of india on wednesday decried all attempts by the government to interfere with the independence of the media taking strong note of resignations by senior journalists of two tv channels and frequent instances of broadcast signals being blocked of programmes seen to be critical of the ruling dispensationthe guild in a statement demanded suitable action against those responsible for nefarious activities aimed at throttling press freedom and urged media owners not to cow down to political pressure being put on them by the government or any other forcesit demanded that the government take note of the cases of disruptions in television programme signals investigate and explain how and under what circumstances these egregious violations are taking placethe guild an umbrella body of media organisations said such attempts strike at the root of media freedom and the foundations of indias democracyit government must also assure the nation that either directly or through any proxies or agencies it isnt involved in this activity and if it isnt these saboteurs must be brought to book freedom of airwaves cannot be tampered with said the guildthe strong statement comes days after the managing editor and two anchors of a prominent tv channel resigned the congress has alleged that they quit due to pressure from the government for airing stories critical of the modi dispensationasserting that such instances were disconcerting the guild said it decries all attempts on the part of the government to interfere in the free and independent functioning of journalists either put under pressure directly or through the proprietorsit said the past few days have seen senior journalists of at least two electronic media channels come out in the open to assert that their employers attempted to either tailor or tone down content to make it less critical of the government leaving them with no choice but to resignthe guild said at least one such instance was reported formally in writing to itthe editors guild of india condemns the manner in which the right to practise free and independent journalism is seen to be undermined by a combination of forces some media owners inability to withstand covert or overt pressures from the political establishment and frequent instances of blocking or interference in the transmission of television content that is seen to be critical of the government it saidthe guild said one tv channel has also shared with it screenshots and details indicating such interferenceeven more worrying are the recent instances where signals of television programmes critical of the government have seemingly been blocked or disrupted in a manner almost orwellian it saidthese undermine the right to be informed and to hold the establishment accountable this seems a brazen attempt to punish unfriendly news channels and silence inconvenient voices the statement saidthe guild asserted that freedom of airwaves cannot be tampered with and decried the tendency on the part of the government and the political class in general to use selective denial of journalistic access as a