4 conspired to stop Agnihothri's press meet: ex-FCCI member

New Delhi: Former member of the Foreign Correspondents Club of India (FCCI), Pankaj Yadav, alleged four journalists conspired to cancel Vivek Agnihotri's Press Meet. Yadav took to Twitter four names alleging that the cancellation was made in a planned manner, IANS reported.

"The Kashmir Files" director Agnihotri had booked the FCCI for a press meet on May 5, but it got cancelled later. The press meet to discuss the movie was later conducted in a five-star hotel.

Later, he claimed in a video that he was a victim of hate crime. He said, "Yesterday, an extremely undemocratic, unusual thing happened to me, I became victim of hate campaign, and my free speech was banned by the watchdog of the free speech, the media."

"Few days back, global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora had informed me that Foreign Correspondents Club in New Delhi was very keen to host a press conference as many foreign media wanted to talk to me regarding Kashmir Files and the truth of Kashmiri Pandits Genocide. A PC was also fixed. But I got a call from its president that few powerful media organizations have taken strong objection to this PC and have threatened to resign on mass level if my conference is allowed," Agnihotri said.

He alleged on Twitter that some influential media persons had objected to his press meet, threatening that they would resign en masse if the conference were held.

Now, Yadav mentioned the names of the office bearers who allegedly threatened to quit: Emily Schmall, Sebastian Farcis, Tawqeer Hussain and Kumkum Chadha.

Yadav was sacked from FCCI in 2021, citing various reasons.