F.P. Report
NEW DELHI: Journalists in India are facing grave threats to their life by the BJP extremist-Hindu Government, as the news agencies report that these threats come either directly from the establishment and its agencies or from those whom the State secretly enables to throttle fair and fearless journalism, on Sunday.
Recent reports show that over the past decade, more than 150 journalists in India were arrested, had FIRs lodged against them, were detained and interrogated, either under ‘terror’ related charges, sedition charges or UAPA, and, after the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, under the Disaster Management Act and Epidemic Diseases Act as well.
The year 2020 alone saw 20% of these cases, with the large majority concentrated in BJP ruled states.
National Alliance of People’s Movement has also condemned the increa-sing intolerance in the country.
To return to the most recent events, a youtuber calling for prominent independent media journalists to ‘be hanged’ for questioning state interventions during lockdown and for reporting on the Farmers’ Protests has been brazenly lauded by BJP leaders including Kapil Mishra, Tajinder Bagga and CG Surya, ex Shiv-Sena member Ramesh Solanki, RSS volunteer who led the BJP’s social media campaign in 2014, Vikas Pandey, and others, with no consideration for the grotesque nature of the insinuations and the calls for violence.
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, sources say.
News agencies report that the situation of ‘freedom’ is worrisome in India as 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.
Less than a month and a half into 2021, the insta-nces of violence against and targeting of journalists are already too many to count. One of the most blatant examples is the recent raid by the En-forcement Directorate (ED) on Newsclick, an independent online news platform.
According to some reports, on 30th January, Mandeep Punia, a freelance journalist who has contributed for The Caravan magazine and Junputh, was dragged by the Delhi Police across the police barricades at Singhu Border, from where he had been reporting from day 1 of the Farmers’ Protests. His arrest has been the most recent and horrific case of repression by the State against journalists instrumental in speaking truth to power.
Prior to this, on 25th January 2021, three Kanpur based TV journalists, Mohit Kashyap, Amit Singh and Yasin Ali, were booked after they ran a story that showed how children in a government school were shivering in the cold while practising yoga in the open.
This took place during a government event which was attended by the technology minister in the UP government, Ajit Singh Pal. On 20th January 2021, a lower court in Gujarat issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against senior journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta in a defamation case filed by Adani against him for stories published in The Wire in 2017, sources say.
Whereas, the Gujarat High Court consequently suspended the warrant and directed him to appear before the lower court in the matter, these cases are proof to the attack on free speech that is underway across the country.
They are a continuation of state repression against journalists who have been reporting on the government’s excesses over the rights of its citizens. The arrest and unconstitutional incarceration of Siddique Kappan is symbolic of this repression.
He was on his way to report the Hathras rape case in Uttar Pradesh when he and three others were charged and arrested under UAPA. He has been in jail since October 2020 without trial or bail, not even allowed to meet his extremely ill, 90-year-old mother.
The continued incarceration, for over 2 years, of Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan, who has been charged under UAPA allegedly on grounds unrelated to his journalism, is one of many reminders that journalists in Kashmir have been reporting under atrocious conditions of surveillance and violence, especially after the abrogation of Article 370.
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, local media says.
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.
Initially the police refused to file an FIR against the accused, in spite of the fact that she was able to provide them with phone numbers. An FIR was filed only after much pursuit, although there is little headway in the matter.
NAPM holds this views that “there is a need to be constantly vigilant to safeguarding the interests of those who are reporting from difficult conditions”.
In times of corporate and state-controlled mass media, we firmly believe that democracy can be rescued only if all of us, as citizens actively support and invest in independent journalism.
