People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PULC) Monday
said that the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is criminalizing free speech. Commenting on detention
of the editor-in-chief of news portal, NewsClick, Prabir Purkayastha and his
partner, Gita Hariharan, at their home in Delhi as the 113-hour “search” by the
Enforcement Directorate continued. Senior citizens aged 73 and 67 years, were
kept in confinement and not allowed access to phones and even to their lawyers
in gross violation of their fundamental rights.
In a statement, PUCL President Ravi Kiran
Jain and General Secretary V. Suresh
said: Unsurprisingly, even till the 5th day, their lawyers did not know why the
raid was happening. “The raid is going on. We have not had a chance to
understand from the clients what has happened. In fact, the clients are also
not aware of the entire details, what is the allegation and we don’t know
exactly why we are being investigated,” the lawyers said.
The raids occurred not just at the office of
NewsClick and the house of its editor-in-chief, but also the residence of its
chief editor, and in about ten places in Ghaziabad and Delhi. It appears that
associated companies, shareholders and others were targeted, making it seem
like a raid on a business cartel out to manipulate the market.
NewsClick, since its formation in 2009, has
gained a vast following, which this government fears, as it continues to inform
the public about the truth and hold the government accountable. The immediate
reason to come down heavily on them is perhaps their fearless reporting of the
farmers’ movement, which is now attracting global attention as the “largest
protest in the world,” the PUCL officials said.
The PUCL also called upon constitutionally
sensitive and democratically minded citizens not to remain silent when the
state so brazenly weaponizes the law to persecute by false prosecution, not
just the journalists, but also all others who may communicate their views
critically questioning the government’s policies and activities.
RSF deplores arbitrary raids on Newsclick
In
a statement Friday, Reporters
Without Borders (RSF) condemned
this week’s raids on the Delhi-based news website Newsclick. The reasons given
for the searches are vague, contradictory or non-existent.
“This
series of searches on the spurious pretext of money-laundering allegations is
intolerable,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk. “They
constitute a serious violation of press freedom and the confidentiality of
journalists’ sources, which are guaranteed by Indian legislation, and they are
preventing the site from operating in a normal manner. “We urge the authorities
to drop the arbitrary proceedings that the Enforcement Directorate initiated
against Newsclick and we call on the government stop using
federal agencies as tools for harassing critical media.”
Newsclick had been praised for
its coverage of the big protests that farmers have been staging in the New
Delhi suburbs for months. The authorities have repeatedly obstructed
journalists covering these protests, as RSF reported last week.
Three
days ago, the Ministry of Electronics and Information TechnologyorderedTwitter to block more
than 1,100 accounts linked to the farmers’ protests, many of them belonging to
reporters and media outlets such as The Caravan. Twitter refused to
comply.
Tellingly,
India is ranked 142nd out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index.
National Alliance
of People’s Movements
The National
Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) Sunday condemned the alarming rise in
state repression and clampdown on news outlets and journalists exposing
the anti-people nature of the establishment.
In a statement, the NAPM said: “It is now
evident that large sections of mainstream media have been steadily converted
into a toxic propaganda machine, reflecting solely the voice of the Centre,
peddling lies, hate and misinformation incessantly. At the same time,
journalists who stand by the ethics of their profession face threats and even
violence, with almost 200 physical attacks against them between 2014 and 2019,
and multiple deaths.”
The NAPM pointed out that as many as five criminal cases have been filed against
prominent journalists Rajdeep Sardesai, Mrinal Pande, Zafar Agha, The Caravan
magazine’s editor and founder Paresh Nath, its editor Anant Nath and executive
editor Vinod K Jose. The given grounds for the cases are allegedly ‘promoting
enmity between different groups, insult with intent to provoke breach of peace
and criminal conspiracy’. These cases pertain to tweets and reports which
alleged that a farmer was shot on 26th January, during the Farmers’ Republic
Day Parade. On 30th January, the Utter Pardes police filed a criminal case
against Siddharth Varadarajan, Founder Editor of The Wire for a report that had
the allegations of the dead farmer’s family.
The attitude of the state towards journalists
and the many strategies of suppression they employ also include and encourage
attacks specifically targeted against women journalists, the NAPM said adding:
Journalist Neha Dixit who
has been uncovering many uncomfortable truths of state excesses, has recently
reported someone barging into her home, as well as stalking; and death and rape
threats.
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