Worry lines deepen in the media after NewsClick

Civil Society News, New Delhi

WHEN the shutters were recently downed on NewsClick in early morning raids by the Delhi police, there was surprise that such a high-voltage operation was needed against a fledgling website with a limited audience.

The founder of NewsClick, Prabir Purkayastha, was taken into custody along with the HR head, Amit Chakrabarty. But also among those picked up in the six am swoop for questioning were junior staff of NewsClick and journalists working as mere contributors and editorial consultants.

NewsClick has been accused of being part of a Chinese propaganda machine. Its main investor, an American, Neville Roy Singham, an IT millionaire and activist, has been cited in a New York Times story as helping China promote its image globally, a charge he denies.

Meanwhile, among journalists across the country, the worry lines have deepened. Protests by journalists were held in Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Mumbai to express concern over the raids on NewsClick. The government, they said, was using a heavy hand to send out a message, making it difficult for journalists to function. Newsrooms would become more fearful and sterile than they already are.

One of the charges against NewsClick is that its coverage of the year-long farmers’ agitation was critical of the new farm laws and not favourable to the government.

But this is a charge that could be levelled against a good many reporters and editors. What room did it leave for journalists merely going about their duties and presenting both sides of a story?

Said Manini Chatterjee, a senior journalist formerly of The Telegraph, about the protest at the Press Club of India in Delhi: “With less than a few hours’ notice hundreds of journalists showed up. What the NewsClick raids have brought home to journalists is that we as a tribe must be more proactive and not just react to things.”

“The raids are chilling and unprecedented. Earlier, well-known activists and journalists were targeted but in the case of NewsClick freelancers, ex-staffers, and even juniors were hauled up, questioned and harassed. This is nothing but state intimidation. A young girl living alone and working for the portal had seven cops land up at six in the morning and they grilled her for hours,” says Chatterjee.

Says E.P. Unny, cartoonist for The Indian Express: “If the daybreak raid is for no good reason, it would connect to the midnight knock.”

“I was a student during the Emergency and saw censorship as a reader. It taught us to read between the lines and look for signs of dissent. After some years when censored cartoons of Abu Abraham and R.K. Laxman got published, you wondered why some innocuous ones were stopped while trenchant ones got into print. While it lasted, censorship must have been a pain for cartoonists for its arbitrariness more than harshness,” he says.

Devinder Sharma, who is known for his detailed work on the farm sector, asks: “Are new boundaries being drawn for journalists? I fail to see how the year-long farmers’ protest in which hundreds of thousands participated can be seen as the handiwork of terrorists.”

“The farmers sought withdrawal of the three farm laws and a framework for the minimum support price. What is wrong with that,” says Sharma. “Journalists who merely highlighted the weaknesses in market reforms deserve to be applauded, not pulled up, surely.”  

Says Monideepa Banerjie in Kolkata: “In 30 years I have seen the best and the worst of times. I think journalism is going into a very black hole. One in which you are always censoring your tweets and comments and constantly looking over your shoulder. It is no way to be. Forget about being a journalist.” 

Hartosh Singh Bal, political editor of The Caravan magazine, says, “This is all just a pretext to go after a large number of journalists, especially some of the finest who have investigated and written about issues that have surely upset the government. Further, the taking away of laptops and phones of these journalists is dangerous, especially in view of the Bhima Koregaon case where evidence was planted in the devices.”

“The media’s biggest problem is the cheerleaders of the government who are not acting as journalists but as propagandists. Indian media has never been in such bad shape,” he laments.

Delhi bureau chief of The Hindu Business Line Poornima Joshi points out that “The raids and arrests in the NewsClick matter have happened at a time of growing curbs and attacks on journalists and media organizations critical of the government. All these constitute a chilling effect on free speech. The most dangerous part of these raids is that there is an attempt to completely blur the lines between the routine practice of journalism that questions the government and that which falls under the issue of national security. Criticism of the government does not constitute an attack on India. But there seems to be a deliberate attempt to criminalize the practice of journalism itself.”

Neena Vyas, a veteran journalist who has covered the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for over 20 years, feels: “The government sounded the death knell of the media in the country several years ago. They have taken over the mainstream media and now attempts are being made to control the digital media.”

She says, “In the NewsClick case there seems to be not a single yuan of Chinese money that has come in. The point is, ahead of 2024 the government is trying to control the narrative of the digital media as more and more people depend on digital sources for news. We would never know of Manipur or even Kashmir if not for the digital platforms.”

Says Rajni Bakshi, a journalist of many years standing who now focuses on ahimsa and conflict resolution: “The events of October 3rd morning give a bizarre twist to an old truth – the means are more important than the ends. In this case the means seem to be the end. The ‘knock’ does not become less ominous when it happens at 6 am rather than midnight.”

“The authorities can collect information and ask questions where required. But collecting information looks like a secondary goal when law-abiding citizens — who would have responded to a simple phone call and answered questions — are made to deal with a surprise police presence in their living room," she says. 

“Journalistic freedom is always an extension of our rights as citizens in a democracy. The knocks on that first Tuesday of October should worry every citizen of India — regardless of  political affiliation,” says Bakshi.