On 3 October, the Indian state launched the biggest crackdown on the press since independence. 46 journalists and their families were woken in the early hours of Tuesday morning by a special unit of Delhi’s police raiding their homes, seizing phones and computers.

According to authorities, the raids by an anti-terror unit that reports directly to Narendra Modi’s union government were necessary due to the alleged direct and indirect association of the journalists to the news website NewsClick.

The invocation of anti-terror laws against an entire media outlet is unprecedented, disturbing and anti-democratic.

The Indian state’s latest campaign against NewsClick began in August, following a Red Scare story in the New York Times, which alleged it spread Chinese propaganda and was funded by US American tech mogul Neville Roy Singham. NewsClick firmly rejected the allegations but nevertheless saw its assets frozen.

According to arrested journalists, the police’s line of inquiry was not Chinese propaganda but reporting critical of the Modi government. Coverage of major stories such as anti-Muslim riots in Delhi, the farmers’ strike against new agricultural laws, protests against the anti-Muslim Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic were all questioned.

Three days in, NewsClick has received no formal notice of charges. The police refuse to provide even a “first information report” besides invoking the anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

In a statement, the publication said, “We strongly condemn these actions of a Government that refuses to respect journalistic independence, and treats criticism as sedition or “anti-national” propaganda.”

This anti-press assault isn’t new. India ranks 161st in the Press Freedom Index and has fallen sharply in the decade of Modi’s rule.

Media outlets that offer critical reporting face routine harassment. In February, tax officials raided the offices of the British Broadcasting Corporation, weeks after it had released a documentary series examining Modi, the rise of Hindu nationalism and his connections to anti-Muslim violence. In July 2021, tax authorities opened an investigation into Dainik Bhaskar, one of the largest newspapers in India, which exposed government mishandling of Covid-19. Independent websites have also been subjected to similar raids, seizing journalists’ electronics.

In a plea to India’s Chief Justice following the latest assault on their colleagues, a coalition of Indian journalist unions and organisations wrote that “a large section of journalists in India finds itself working under the threat of reprisal.” Following the raid, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists called for the immediate release of the journalists, urging the government to “stop trying to intimidate journalists.”

These anti-democratic, anti-media state actions look set to ramp up ahead of general elections next year. The BJP’s playbook will stoke Islamophobia, described by Genocide Watch as “a state-manufactured ideology”, intimidate and silence journalists who challenge it and deploy anti-terror laws against dissidents of all stripes.

We stand in solidarity with all the brave, truth-seeking, power-challenging journalists in India, who now risk their liberty to keep people informed, and all those facing down the demolition of India’s democracy.

Latest from the Movement

13 parties, unions and movements join the PI

This week we were proud and excited to welcome 13 new member organisations to our ranks, swelling our numbers to 75 from 40 countries. As Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, co-general coordinator of the Progressive International, said welcoming them, “They are all inspiring fighters for justice, challenging the powerful and standing with the people in their respective countries. Our shared historical moment is shrouded in the dark shadow of threats but still pregnant with opportunity. Together, we will direct our politics toward greater fire and ambition, matching the scale of our crises to the scale of the actions that we mount against them.”

Find out more about our new members here and look out for more detailed profiles of our members and their work in upcoming editions of this newsletter.

Hands off Haiti

This week the United Nations Security Council voted to authorise a nominally Kenyan-led multinational security force to intervene in Haiti. The move has drawn strong criticism from progressive forces in the western hemisphere and in Kenya, who see the US-funded force as little more than neocolonial blackwashing.

Haiti has suffered endless foreign interventions since its people defeated slavery and colonialism 200 years ago to form a republic. The cabinet of the Progressive International has demanded “an urgent end to interventionism in Haiti.”

Translators of the world, unite!

Saturday 30 September was International Translation Day. The Progressive International marked the day and honoured our translators and interpreters who have given us voice by looking back at some of our most popular translations — essays, analyses, and stories of struggle that have reached audiences far and wide.

Art: Sudhir Patwardhan’s 1981 painting Street Play. Made in the run-up to the massive textile mill strike that rocked Mumbai in 1982, it presents a streetscape stitched together from different parts of the city, a sequence of panels.