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NEW DELHI, Monday (Reuters) India's top court on Monday halted a state government order to arrest five journalists and the publisher of one of the country's most respected dailies for alleged slander. The publisher and four journalists from The Hindu and one from a Tamil regional daily appealed to the court after the Tamil Nadu state assembly sentenced them to 15 days in jail for breach of privilege.

"We stay execution of the arrests in the case," said Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, heading a two-judge Supreme Court bench.

Friday's state assembly move sparked nationwide uproar over press freedom and protests were due around the country on Monday. The assembly said an April editorial in The Hindu had justified news articles by two of its journalists "that cast a slur on the chief minister's action in the assembly" and imputed ulterior motives to assembly actions.

It slapped the prison sentence on publisher S. Rangarajan, editor N. Ravi, executive editor Malini Parthasarathy, the Madras bureau chief and a correspondent of The Hindu for the articles and S. Selvam, editor of Murasoli, published by the state's main opposition party, for repeating the comments.

The 125-year-old newspaper has maintained the articles were simply "a rather measured criticism of the chief minister".

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