Editors Guild of India slams Rahul Gandhi for his criticism of ANI Editor-in-Chief Smita Prakash

After Gandhi dubbed it a staged interview, the Guild in a statement said: "The Guild believes journalists should claim no immunity from healthy and civilised criticism. At the same time, labelling of journalists has emerged as a favourite tactic on the part of the establishment to discredit, delegitimise and intimidate them."

ANI editor Smita Prakash herself did not spare the Congress president. She slammed  Rahul Gandhi on Twitter for his remarks in a press conference after the PM's interview.

"Dear Mr Rahul Gandhi, cheap shot at your press conference to attack me. I was asking questions not answering. You want to attack Mr Modi, go ahead but downright absurd to ridicule me. Not expected of a president of the oldest political party in the country," she tweeted after Gandhi said the ANI editor is "pliable" and the interview was staged.

Disgruntled BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha also took the opportunity to attack Modi as he dared the PM to face "journalists at a press conference" even as more journalists' organisations slam Rahul Gandhi.

Delhi Journalists Assn affiliated to National Union of Journalists India (NUJI) has also sought apology from Congress Chief Rahul Gandhi tweeting "in line with long brilliant past @INCIndia should express regret and apologise over @smitaprakash incident.  We expect party to reiterate its respect for freedom and dignity of press.”

The Editors Guild, however, tempered its criticism of Gandhi by also drawing the names of BJP and AAP.

"We have seen our political class use this for some time now. In the recent past, top BJP leaders as well as those of AAP have used unambiguously abusive expressions such as 'presstitute, news-traders, bazaaru (saleable commodities) or  dalals  (pimps) for journalists," it said in the same release.

"Combined with ploys such as boycotts, denial of access and lately government accreditation, this adds up to a reprehensible strategy to throttle media freedoms.

"This must be reversed. Journalists, we believe, will continue to deal with these with their usual thick skins and not let these tactics intimidate them. The Guild, as an apex, non-partisan institution, however, takes strong exception to this tendency and calls for its halt," said the Guild whose present president is senior journalist Shekhar Gupta.