Tag: Press Freedom

‘Raids on NewsClick Dare Journalists To Write Against BJP Govt’

By LokMarg

N K Singh, a senior journalist and former general secretary of the Broadcast Editors’ Association, puts the Delhi Police raids in a larger perspective. His views:

The Delhi Police raids on media portal NewsClick office and journalists associated with it need to be studied in their wider connotations. Let us begin with the context first. What is the genesis of their police action? A report published in The New York Times which speculated that Chinese money had been routed through a company owned by an individual named Neville Roy Singham to peddle pro-Beijing, nay, anti-India propaganda. Singham worked “closely with the Chinese government media machine” which not necessarily were in the sovereign interests of India.

Surprisingly, the NYT reporter, according to a subsequent statement, did not carry the categorical denial made by Singham’s organization. The organization claims that it had never taken any money from any Chinese entity.

Whatsoever be the facts of the case, the Narendra Modi-led government initiated action against NewsClick for being a part of the global the umbrella group created by Singham and allegedly having received a sum of Rs 38 crores from them. The editor and another co-functionary of NewsClick have been arrested under the UAPA (Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act) which is most often invoked to take action against terrorist activities.

Ten years ago, Section 15 of the Act added ‘economic security’ “by any other means of whatsoever nature” in sub-clause (1). Read with 1 (c) it means any write-up based on government’s advance estimate for production, written to caution the government against an impending shortage of pulses, wheat or rice may be construed as terrorist act, should that write-up result in traders holding these items which may eventually cause supply disruption. It is important to note that this clause is precisely what spurred the arrest. The farmers’ agitation had disrupted supplies for a brief while in Delhi.

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The NewsClick with hundreds of other media outlets had put out articles favouring agitation. The government, according sources, claimed that economic security of the country was perceived to have been threatened. 

With such blatant attack on the freedom of Press, the intent of the Centre was clear: there will be consequences for Indian journalists who write anything against the government. And this when General Elections are round the corner.

A democratic government needs to verify facts before making arrests and charging people for a charge as grievous as sedition. Even if they say that this whole affair is an action against Chinese funds that are trying to create an anti-India narrative, there are several questions that the government needs to answer before making these arrests. Has the government made any attempts to press charges against Singham? Are they going to speak with his country of residence to hold him guilty?

Once arrested under this act, securing the bail is a Herculean task. UAPA is the government’s stick for slow-burn ‘soft torture’. If anyone speaks anything against the government, then the state at once takes recourse to the UAPA act. Journalists are targets here because they are usually middle-class people, economically not well equipped to fight the law with their limited resources. Their children and families get affected.

After a few years behind bars, when the law finds the so called criminal ‘clean’, and lets him free, his life and world have turned upside down and he has nowhere to go. We have seen this before in many cases among dissenters under the current regime. To quote none other than the former CJI NV Rammana, “In our criminal justice system, the process is the punishment.”

As told to Deepa Gupta

Kashmiri Photojournalist

Guilty of Holding a Lens to Society

By Amit Sengupta

Did the little ones feel deep sorrow and loss, or, was it a sense of pride and joy, as the audience gave them a standing ovation as a tribute to their father, Danish Siddiqui, ace news photographer, who died so young, ‘on duty’, clicking pictures till the last moment of his life? Or, did they feel a synthesis of mixed emotions, as their father’s memories loomed inside their pure hearts?

So why did they allow the little ones, Yunus, 6, and his sister, Sarah, 4, to visit New York recently to collect the Pulitzer Award, when, without any explanation whatsoever, they denied another young and brilliant photographer, Sanna Irshad Mattoo, from going to America to receive the award, despite a legitimate visa? Is it because she is a Kashmiri?

The ruling dispensation in Delhi, the nation-state, the civil society and the media should have rejoiced this great achievement of journalism whereby four Indian journalists and their sensitive and brave photography was honoured and showcased for the entire world to see! Though the death of Danish kept stalking the collective inner-self, is the sense of fulfillment and pride at this achievement by young photo journalists not another form of love for the nation? So, should we not feel proud simply because Danish is a Muslim from Delhi, and Sanna is a Kashmiri Muslim from the Valley?

Indeed, the silence on the death of Danish within certain quarters in Delhi and India, despite mourning across the world media, has been stunningly shocking. So, even in death, should all humanity be suspended?

Those who compulsively celebrate sectarian schizophrenia driven by xenophobia and hate politics are doomed to be eternally ghettoized, hate-driven and frustrated, despite the pseudo self-glorification of fake greatness, and the pumping of chests every time India defeats Pakistan in a T-20 game. If this is not a clear case of warped nationalism, then, what is? How can we obsessively suppress this proud moment and suppress it, when we actually want to do just the opposite – to clap and applaud this journalistic achievement?

And, how can a nation achieve anything worthwhile if it is all branded in polarizing categories as a Pavlovian reaction, and, thereby, quickly measured in terms of religion, caste, identity, ideology? Should we then turn mum, if a Hindi litterateur, who has got the Booker first time for Hindi literature, happens to be also deeply secular, cares strongly about injustice, and is ready to speak out about young, brilliant Muslim scholars rotting meaninglessly in jail under draconian laws? Is it wrong to be secular and feel strongly about injustice in contemporary India?

Or, is the religion of a sportsperson more important or her great talent on the ground? Or, if a tribal athlete from the remote interiors of indigenous India, breaks all hitherto records – should we hold our joy because she/he had earlier spoken about tribal rights?

“It is so unjust and unfair,” said Sanna. “I am heartbroken.”

“I am actually trying to understand why this has happened to me. I am looking for the reasons. Since I think they have nothing against me, I tried to reach out to officials since I was last barred (in July), but I got no response,” Sanna, 27, told The Telegraph. “I think the right to travel is the basic right of any individual, why deny me the same? I was like so much looking forward to receive it. It is really very traumatic… It is a once-in-a-lifetime achievement for me. My family and I were so excited about it, but, sadly, I am not allowed to collect the award.”

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She was part of a Reuters team that won this year’s Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography. In a bizarre move, she was not allowed by the immigration authorities in Delhi from flying to New York to receive the award, despite a valid US visa and ticket. In July, earlier this year, she had to face another heart-break – again for reasons not known to her. She was not allowed to travel to Paris for a photo show and book launch, even while she was one of the proud winners of the Serendipity Arles Grant, 2020.

If this does not sound and look like a witch-hunt, then, what is it? Reminds me of the media under all forms of dictatatorships,  as in Russia now and Soviet Russia in the past, China, under a totalitarian regime, camouflaged as a communist party, Iran, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, among similar dispensations. It also reminds of the hounding of liberals, dissenters, Leftists, in a democracy – the McCarthy-driven witch-hunt in America during the Cold War, whereby no one was spared, from celebrity playwright Arthur Miller to Charlie Chaplin, among others. 

So what was the crime of Danish, Sanaa, and their photo journalists’ team also comprising Adnan Abidi and Amit Dave? They documented the mass tragedy during Covid in India, especially the thousands of deaths and mass cremations during the deadly Delta wave, including in Delhi, when the entire medical infrastructure had collapsed, there were no oxygen cylinders, beds or medicine, people were gasping for death and dying here, there, everywhere, public parks and streets were turned into cremation grounds in some places, many relatives disowned their own – both, living and dead, and the current regime in Delhi, especially its top-heavy leadership, all but disappeared from the devastating scene! 

Danish had also covered the heart-rending long march of the thousands of emaciated, hungry and thirsty migrant workers, walking on the highways under a scorching sun, left to their fate, yet again by the central government, after the prime minister had announced a sudden and draconian lockdown at 8 pm on March 24, 2020.

Significantly, Danish had won the Pulitzer in 2018 for documenting the tragedy of Rohingya refugees who were subjected to genocide by the Burmese army, backed then by Aung San Suu Kyi. He was also out there covering the ‘invasion’ of Taliban at the Son Boldak crossing in July 2021in Afghanistan, when he was killed.

The US has said that it is closely tracking the developments on Sanaa not being allowed to travel. US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said, “We are committed to supporting Press freedom. And, as the secretary has noted, a shared commitment to democratic values, including the respect for the independence of the press, is a bedrock of the US-India relationship.”

It is reported that she is on a no-fly list along with other journalists in Kashmir. Anyway, journalists in the Valley have been going through a horrible time since the army clampdown and abrogation of Article 370. According to the Human Rights Watch earlier, “at least 35 journalists throughout Kashmir have experienced police questioning, raids, threats, physical abuse, limitations of freedom of movement, or concocted criminal charges for their reporting,” since August 2019.  According to Reporters Without Borders’ 2022 Press Freedom Index, among 180 countries, India ranks 150.

Meanwhile, when movie theatres were reopened in Srinagar after years recently, this reporter called up a veteran journalist in Kashmir. “Tell us your memories about the film culture in Kashmir earlier? Did you see films of Dilip Kumar, Madhubala, Guru Dutta, Waheeda Rehman, Dev Anand? Did you see Pakeezah, Bobby and Sholay when you were young, first day, first show?”

He said he has vivid memories of watching movies in Srinagar those days. However, he said that he is ready to go down the memory lane only on one condition – that his photograph and name will not appear with the interview. “Please understand,” he said. “At this age, I don’t want to go to the police station.”

Pegasus and Beyond: Press Freedom at Stake

By Chahat Awasthi

As a rogue religious fanatic stood outside Jamia Milia Islamia, gun pointed towards students, a Danish Siddiqui stood in his direct range to get the perfect shot. He wanted to document a story from the point closest to action. He told the Guardian once, “I shoot for the common man who wants to see and feel a story from a place where he can’t be present himself.”

Siddiqui is not alone. Often in crisis situations when the world runs away from a threat, journalists run towards it. Such madness. Such risks. Such passion. Consequently, when some don’t live to tell their stories, others take up their cause.

However, in the recent years a pattern has been observed – a rise in right-wing populist nationalism across the globe and an increase in intolerance towards freedom of speech and expression.

The last decade, in particular, has been chilling for the profession. In 2018, Jamal Khashoggi went to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, to never come out. Prince Mohammed Bin Salman told Bloomberg News that Khashoggi had left. It can safely be said that Khashoggi’s wife, who was waiting for him right outside, would disagree.

Allegedly, the currently infamous Pegasus spyware had a role to play. NSO (the company that owns the spyware) denies its use even as it says it doesn’t keep a list of targets – current and potential. How does one wrap their head around such conflicting statements?

Worldwide, 937 journalists have been killed in ten years. About 50 were killed in 2020 and 54 held as hostage in the same year. Some are missing. While journalists have been killed in cold blood, arrested for speaking out inconvenient truths and spied upon for decades now (maybe since the start of the trade), let’s not for one second feel that it is a normal order of the world – whatever it is that we are seeing right now, a lot of which is coming from conservative/right-wing populist and hyper-nationalist countries.

In Singapore, as the conservative centre-right party continues to rule, the “Switzerland of the East” has been painted black on the map of World Press Freedom Index. Journalists are sued left, right and centre and defamation suits are the order of the day. The cherry on the cake? Citizen Lab, the academic research lab that focuses on global security, human rights and communication technologies, found Pegasus infections here.

ALSO READ: Pegasus, What’s New About It!

The international organization protecting the right to freedom of information, Reporters Without Borders, says that this city-state is not far-off from China when it comes to suppression of Press. Self-censorship prevails and government decides what is incorrect in News. Words like democracy, press freedom, independence come to mind but not in a positive way.

Moving on. The United Kingdom, currently governed by the Conservative party, is considering changes to the Official Secrets Act of 1989 that could lead journalists reporting on matters that embarrass the government to be imprisoned for up to 14 years.  

Now, some would say that the core of journalism hinges on holding the government to account. The Home Office told the National that reporters would remain free to do so but it’s not yet clear how. The National Union of Journalists has responded with a staunch opposition, some calling it “actual fascism”.

But fascism comes in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes it looks like a friend. Technology, for instance, has created immense sophistication in our lives. There is so much to be thankful for. But some of it is operating on legal and ethical boundaries of personal freedom and private lives and some of it has crossed those boundaries. Pegasus belongs to the latter category.

After the Pegasus scandal erupted, BBC reported that about 50 countries could be clients to NSO, the firm behind the spyware that can collect some of the most personal and private information of people it snoops upon.

It’s critical here to understand that its commonness does not make it ok for it to be used world over. It should become more alarming. The fact that there is a community killed, mutilated, and treated as dispensable and that it has been handling spyware attacks at the same time because it is so common is not ok. What’s needed is support for it to thrive and not vile programs used by vile governments for vile purposes.

This very community in its varied image (good, bad, and ugly) is a major pillar of any democracy. Snooping, especially, at the level that the Pegasus operates on – the excessive and unaccountable surveillance – is antithetical to the essence of democracy and to the spirit of journalism.

While some governments can use surveillance for national security, at one point it must show prosecutions that show actual breach of this security or an attempt to justify such action. It cannot be a “snoop till eternity and without any basis”.

ALSO READ: Press Freedom In India Is A Myth

However, in India, the Pegasus scandal does not exist in a vacuum. There is a context to overall downgrading of press freedom. In 2020, India had slipped nine points in the press freedom index from 133 in 2016. That’s nine points in four years. Among 180 countries, we now stand at 142.

Our close neighbour Pakistan, which is ruled by a “centrist”, Islamist and populist party, ranks 145. It is also in the list of countries where infections associated with Pegasus operators have been found.

In India, though, the blow on this fourth pillar of democracy and subsequent fall in press freedom ranking is not in a vacuum. The assault on democracy has been duly noted and in the annual democracy index published by the Economist Intelligence Unit in 2020, India slipped two places down.

What looks like a mere journalism problem to the world right now might be a bigger democratic problem and now would be a good time to focus on this deepening crisis of freedom of speech, overreach of power and sustained assault on a major institution defining some of the most influential global powers.

At home, we need the fix the Pegasus issue. Our government must come clean. Did they buy Pegasus? Did they use it? Yes or no, with or without proper authorization? It is confusing for the common man to understand why a government would not do it already but give logically erroneous responses like other countries do it too, it’s an attempt to derail the data protection bill (oddly!), and how our surveillance is never illegal (help us believe it?).

To wrap up, the list of countries with populist governments leaning to the right and allegedly using Pegasus is not as short as some would like. The declining press freedom in most of these nations is concerning. The relationship needs to be examined. But, before we root for an Orwellian world, knowing what’s at stake might only be proper. 1984, anyone?