{"id":2829,"date":"2019-06-24T10:44:50","date_gmt":"2019-06-24T10:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nehadixit.in\/?p=2829"},"modified":"2023-09-20T08:14:58","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T08:14:58","slug":"indias-attacks-on-a-free-press-are-part-of-a-disturbing-trend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nehadixit.in\/indias-attacks-on-a-free-press-are-part-of-a-disturbing-trend\/","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s Attacks on a Free Press Are Part of a Disturbing Trend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jagisha Arora, wife of arrested journalist Prashant Kanojia, takes part in a demonstration in New Delhi on Monday with other members of the media. (Anushree Fadnavis\/Reuters)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Neha Dixit<\/i><\/p>\n

On June 8,\u00a0Prashant Kanojia<\/a>, an independent journalist in India, was on his way home from grocery shopping when he was stopped and detained by plainclothes officers, allegedly without a warrant. He spent\u00a0three days<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0jail<\/a>\u00a0before being released on orders of the Indian Supreme Court, which\u00a0declared<\/a>\u00a0that the \u201cliberty of [a] citizen is sacrosanct, and non-negotiable.\u201d<\/p>\n

And why was Kanojia detained? For posting a video on Twitter mocking the chief minister of the populous state of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath.<\/div>\n
Kanojia was accused of defamation for sharing a video of a woman\u00a0who claimed<\/a>\u00a0to be in love with Adityanath, a monk and Hindu nationalist. Kanojia was one of four journalists arrested between June 6 and June 8. Two of them \u2014 Ishita Singh, head of the news channel Nation Live, and one of the channel\u2019s editors, Anuj Shukla \u2014 were\u00a0arrested<\/a>\u00a0for airing footage of the same woman.<\/div>\n
In a rare occasion of Indian media solidarity \u2014 including\u00a0statements<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0media groups<\/a>,\u00a0protest marches<\/a>\u00a0and news coverage of the event in the mainstream media \u2014 pressure built to release Kanojia. The other journalists were not as lucky. Unfortunately, this is part of a broader trend.<\/div>\n
Over the past three years, India dropped seven places to rank 140 on the Reporters Without Borders\u00a0world press freedom index<\/a>. Though Article 19 of the Indian Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of speech and expression, and Article 21 guarantees the protection of life and personal liberty, there is\u00a0no other law<\/a>\u00a0in place to protect journalists\u2019 right to practice their profession safely and freely.<\/div>\n
\n

If anything, laws are routinely used to harass them. Criminal defamation, an archaic colonial law that was used against Kanojia and can lead to imprisonment up to two years, is a commonly invoked charge. But in many other cases, the government brings into play other criminals laws, such as maintaining public order and national security.<\/p>\n

I have experienced this first hand. In 2016, I filed an\u00a0investigative report<\/a>\u00a0for Outlook magazine on Hindu nationalist groups. When the report was published, criminal cases were filed against me with\u00a0accusations<\/a>\u00a0of defamation and \u201cinciting communal hatred<\/a>.\u201d The cases could land me in prison for up to five years. I am confident in my reporting, but often the process \u2014 with hefty legal fees, little to no support from media organizations and years of delays \u2014 is the punishment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

My experience is not unique. In 2010, a journalist with Tehelka magazine,\u00a0K.K. Shahina<\/a>, was\u00a0charged<\/a>\u00a0under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for investigating allegations that the Karnataka police framed Muslims in cases of terror. Next year will mark a decade since her fight began.<\/div>\n
In another egregious case,\u00a0Kishorechandra Wangkhemcha<\/a>, a journalist from the northeastern state of Manipur, spent four months in jail for writing Facebook posts that were critical of the actions of the ruling\u00a0Bharatiya Janata<\/a>\u00a0Party<\/a>. He was\u00a0released<\/a>\u00a0in April.<\/div>\n
The legal cases are a definite way to deter journalists from their duties and promote self-censorship. This is clear in the Uttar Pradesh government\u2019s\u00a0submission\u00a0<\/a>in Kanojia\u2019s case, which says the arrest was necessary \u201cto send a message.\u201d<\/div>\n
The government has also turned a blind eye to violence against journalists. According to the\u00a0Committee to Protect Journalists<\/a>, as many as\u00a070 journalists<\/a>\u00a0were killed in India over the course of 24 years until 2016. There have been\u00a0reports\u00a0<\/a>of social media users \u2014 followed by the official Twitter handle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi \u2014 who have encouraged violence against journalists or writers critical of the ruling party. It appears no action has been taken against them.<\/div>\n
The government has created an atmosphere that has normalized the impeding and targeting of journalists who speak truth to power. Modi has\u00a0not answered questions<\/a>\u00a0at a single news conference in the past five years. V.K. Singh, a former army general and the minister of state for road transport and highways, famously\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0journalists \u201cpresstitutes.\u201d<\/div>\n
In this context, the number of arrests, attacks and legal cases against journalists suggests that the world\u2019s largest democracy is heading toward becoming a police state. If the stifling of dissent and debate continues, it will not be long before Modi is included on the list of \u201cdemocratators,\u201d a\u00a0term used<\/a>\u00a0by Joel Simon, the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, for politicians who use democratic mandates to govern as dictators.<\/div>\n
\n

If the Indian government wanted to show its commitment to democracy and free speech, a good start would be the release of\u00a0Aasif Sultan<\/a>, a Kashmiri journalist who has been in jail since August for writing an article about slain militant Burhan Wani. One of the last publicly available\u00a0images<\/a>\u00a0of Sultan is from September, when he\u00a0appeared<\/a>\u00a0in court, handcuffed, holding his 6-month-old daughter and wearing a T-shirt reading, \u201cJournalism is not a crime.\u201d If only Indian authorities understood that.<\/p>\n

Published by The Washington Post on June 13, 2019<\/i>
\nLink:\u00a0https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2019\/06\/13\/indias-attacks-free-press-are-part-disturbing-trend\/<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jagisha Arora, wife of arrested journalist Prashant Kanojia, takes part in a demonstration in New Delhi on Monday with other members of the media. (Anushree Fadnavis\/Reuters) Neha Dixit On June 8,\u00a0Prashant Kanojia, an independent journalist in India, was on his way home from grocery shopping when he was stopped and detained by plainclothes officers, allegedly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[474,103],"tags":[],"thb-sponsors":[],"yoast_head":"\nIndia\u2019s Attacks on a Free Press Are Part of a Disturbing Trend - Neha Dixit<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nehadixit.in\/indias-attacks-on-a-free-press-are-part-of-a-disturbing-trend\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"India\u2019s Attacks on a Free Press Are Part of a Disturbing Trend - Neha Dixit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jagisha Arora, wife of arrested journalist Prashant Kanojia, takes part in a demonstration in New Delhi on Monday with other members of the media. 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