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.
