Several media groups – including Digipub News India Foundation, Gauhati Press Club, Indian Women’s Press Corps, Press Club of India, Mumbai Press Club, among others – on October 4 wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of India requesting the judiciary to intervene and put an end to the “increasingly repressive use of investigating agencies against the media”.
According to the letter, “sweeping seizures and interrogations surely cannot be considered acceptable in any democratic country, let alone one that has begun advertising itself as the ‘mother of democracy’.”
The letter was also signed by Foundation for Media Professionals, Kolkata Press Club, Chandigarh Press Club, National Alliance of Journalists, Delhi Union of Journalists, Kerala Union of Working Journalists, Brihanmumbai Union of Journalists, Free Speech Collective, Mumbai, Arunachal Pradesh Union of Working Journalists, Press Association, Indian Journalists’ Union, and Network of Women in Media, India.
The collective move by the press bodies was after police searches at houses of several journalists, held across 35 locations in New Delhi and Mumbai on October 3. Among those raided were NewsClick editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha, journalists Abhisar Sharma, Bhasha Singh Urmilesh and others. Police also arrested Prabir Purkayastha, founder and editor-in-chief of NewsClick and its HR head Amit Chakraborty in an alleged terror case.
The press organizations said that invocation of UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act), which has led to the arrest of two people in this case, is “chilling”. “Journalism cannot be prosecuted as ‘terrorism’. Enough instances in history abound to tell us where that eventually goes,” the letter noted.
“We do not say that journalists are above the law. We are not and do not wish to be. However, intimidation of the media affects the democratic fabric of the society. And subjecting journalists to a concentrated criminal process because the government disapproves of their coverage of national and international affairs is an attempt to chill the press by threat of reprisal – the very ingredient you identified as a threat to freedom,” the letter further said.
Letter from the media to D.Y. Chandrachud, Chief Justice of India, on the Delhi police raids at the homes of journalists and seizure of devices.
"…ad hoc, sweeping seizures and interrogations surely cannot be considered acceptable in any democratic country." pic.twitter.com/AY1idO1Oao
— DIGIPUB News India Foundation (@DigipubIndia) October 4, 2023
The letter further called for framing of norms to discourage the seizure of journalists’ phone and laptops on a whim, as has been the case. It also requested the judiciary to consider evolving guidelines for the interrogation of journalists and for seizures from them, to ensure that these are not undertaken as fishing expeditions with no bearing to an actual offence.
It further wished finding ways to ensure the accountability of state agencies and individual officers who are found overstepping the law or willfully misleading courts with vague and open-ended investigations against journalists for their journalistic work.
“As journalists and news professionals, we are always ready and willing to cooperate with any bona fide investigation. However, ad hoc, sweeping seizures and interrogations surely cannot be considered acceptable in any democratic country, let alone one that has begun advertising itself as the ‘mother of democracy,” the letter addressed to the CJI said.
