NewsClick editor Prabir Purkaystha being arrested by the Delhi Police while journalists try to get a statement from him, New Delhi, India, October 3, 2023. Photo: NewsClick.
Journalists unions and civil society groups came together to commemorate the first anniversary of the Indian government’s crackdown on independent media outlet NewsClick and arrest of its founding editor Prabir Purkayastha, on Thursday, October 3 at the Press Club of India (PCI) in New Delhi.
The press conference and public meeting was organized by Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ), Press Association (PA), Indian Women’s Press Corps (AWPC), and Kerala Union of Working Journalists, in collaboration with PCI.
Along with Prabir, several other senior journalists including P Sainath, founding editor of People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) and N Ram, former editor of India’s leading English daily The Hindu along with the office bearers of the unions addressed the gathering. All speakers expressed concern about the shrinking spaces for free press in India under the government under the leadership of Narendra Modi of the Hindu supremacist and ultra right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and called for a concerted and organized resistance to save the freedom of media.
Speakers condemned the fabricated charges against Prabir and NewsClick underlining that the attacks on the organization and its founding editor was the lowest point of media freedom in the history of the country since 1975 when the emergency was declared.
In the early morning of October 3, 2023, nearly 100 homes and offices of over 70 journalists, ex-employees, and other staff members, were raided in a massive operation by the Delhi police. Those individuals and in many cases, their family members, were interrogated for hours and their electronic equipment such as laptops and mobile phones were confiscated. Prabir and Amit Chakraborty, the then head of human resources, were arrested.
After spending over six months in jail, Prabir was released on May 15, 2024, when a Supreme Court ruling found his arrest illegal. A charge sheet was filed against him and NewsClick weeks prior, which accused them of receiving illegitimate funding and using it to fund terror and anti-state activities. NewsClick had maintained that those charges are completely concocted and false.
Addressing the gathering, Prabir underlined that both print and electronic media in India today are compromised and do not represent the diversity of voices and opinions the country has. He claimed that the rise of alternative media through digital platforms in India was an assertion of that diversity which was lost due to state pressure.
Prabir maintained that because the BJP-led government feels threatened by diverse opinions and voices, it has sought to control digital space as well through the use of oppressive state agencies as well as threats of regressive legislation such as the proposed broadcasting bill.
Prabir stated that he had hoped that due to “sheer number of people empowered by technology and digital revolution, shutting them all down completely would be a difficult task for any government.”
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“India is the one of the worst places to be a journalist today”
Highlighting that the BJP government in India has tried every maneuver to suppress the voices of dissent including threatening them by using the central law enforcement agencies and using draconian laws such as Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), N Ram cited a report of Reporters without Borders (RSF) which had called India to be one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist.
Speakers affirmed that in India, the pressure on journalists is such that those who fail to surrender to the state’s political line are either killed, jailed, or forced into unemployment. Different campaigns have also been launched on social media to vilify some of these voices, which has made finding work next to impossible.
NewsClick was forced to let most of its employees go in February this year because it was unable to pay salaries after the tax authorities effectively shut down its bank accounts in December 2023. It has been forced to rely on largely unpaid volunteer contributions by reporters to keep its site running.
Seven months later, many former employees are still searching for jobs and now face dire economic situations. Most of those who spoke to Peoples Dispatch claimed that they are unable to get new jobs primarily due to the stigma attached to the name of the organization after a concerted misinformation campaign launched by the government aligned media groups.
The crackdown was sparked by a hit piece published by the New York Times (NYT) in August 2023 which claimed that NewsClick was part of an international propaganda network run from China.
NewsClick and its funders denied the charges claiming the article in the NYT was based on false and baseless accusations in order to vilify and attack alternative and critical voices in media and civil society, and curb the freedom of speech. However, BJP politicians and major media outlets in India magnified those false claims to delegitimize it.
Former employees told Peoples Dispatch that the spectacle of the government crackdown and the media vilification campaign created fear among potential employers. They fear that hiring former NewsClick staff may invite unnecessary state scrutiny to their own organizations.
A year after the raid and seizure of their work equipment, including dozens of computers, hard drives, cellphones, and other devices, none of the NewsClick employees have got them back, further hampering their chances of employment. A resolution adopted at the end of the meeting on Thursday reads that “seizure of professional equipment like laptops, phones and computers without following due process and for an indefinite period of time amounts to an attack on livelihood and the right to work without intimidation.”
“Right to work and to profess one’s occupation and profession is a constitutional right” under Indian constitution, “journalists and all those associated with the profession have to be given” this right, the resolution adopted at the meeting demands.
