Imphal, April 18: Media freedom in Manipur was reduced to a joke by a militant faction that held six Imphal-based newspaper editors hostage throughout Sunday night and forced them to publish a statement which they had previously ignored.

Indignant journalists today went on a strike and organised a rally in protest against the incident, which is the first of its kind even in a state where militant groups routinely intimidate people into submission.

The Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) faction, headed by a militant City Meitei, had summoned the editors to Imphal West district on Sunday on the pretext of holding a news meet. The editors were held captive at the same place till Monday morning, when their newspapers published the statement in the form their captors wanted. The statement was about the outfit?s ?raising day? celebration.

Before freeing the editors, the militants told them that they had clamped a ban on Imphal Free Press, an English daily, for three months for misquoting a previous statement.

?We went there because the group had invited us for a media meet. But once we went there and met them, the group made its intention very clear. They held us captive and freed us only after they saw the statement published in yesterday?s editions. This is for the first time in my career that I have been in militant custody,? one of the hostages said.

A spokesman for the Editors Forum said journalists in the state would not succumb to pressure from militants any longer, but most admitted in private that it was easier said than done. ?They (the militants) are armed and we are soft targets,? said a young reporter with a language daily.

Functionaries of the All Manipur Working Journalists? Union and the Editors? Forum met last night and decided to protest intimidation by militant groups. They also decided to ?reject? the ban on the Imphal Free Press. The English newspaper published today?s edition in defiance of the militant diktat.

In a show of solidarity with print journalists, the local cable television network decided not to air its news bulletins tomorrow.

Protesters marched from the Imphal Press Club to the chief minister?s office to submit a memorandum bearing the signatures of over 100 journalists. They urged chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh to take appropriate action.

An official source said special security arrangements had been made in and around newspaper offices in Imphal. ?Police teams have been deployed for round-the-clock vigil.?