On Wednesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists released a statement calling on US President Joe Biden to bring up concerns surrounding press freedoms in India ahead of his meeting with PM Narendra Modi, who will be on a state visit to the US from 21-24 June.
5 Key Demands
The organisation urged the US administration to push on five key demands.
First, it called for discussions on the detention of six journalists — Aasif Sultan, Gautam Navlakha, Sajad Gul, Fahad Shah, Rupesh Kumar Singh, and Irfan Mehraj. The statement claimed they had been targeted using India’s “draconian security laws,” which were imposed “in retaliation to their work.”
Five of these journalists are in pretrial detention, while the sixth has been charged under “spurious” terrorism laws.
Second, CPJ demanded that the US oppose the “harassment of domestic and foreign media” through “routine raids” and “income tax investigations.” To support this claim, it cited the Indian authorities’ crackdowns against the BBC’s Mumbai and New Delhi offices.
BBC employees have also complained about “visa uncertainties, restricted access to several areas including Jammu and Kashmir, and deportation threats. The statement said that these actions were in retaliation to the media house’s documentary criticising PM Modi and his role in the 2002 Godhra riots.
Third, the CPJ highlighted the media crackdown in Kashmir, through which journalists’ work is attacked using travel bans, raids, and legal charges. In 2020, India also introduced a “stringent media policy” on fake news.
Fourth, the group stated that journalists are killed with “ongoing impunity,” highlighting that 62 were killed since 1992 “in connection with their work.”
Ahead of Indian PM @narendramodi’s visit to the U.S. from June 21 to 24 and meeting with @POTUS, CPJ called on the U.S. government to urge India to end its media crackdown and release the six journalists arbitrarily detained in retaliation for their work.https://t.co/Sfgvu2xd9j
— Committee to Protect Journalists (@pressfreedom) June 14, 2023
Fifth, the release called for discussions on “digital media restrictions” through the IT Rules 2021, which allows authorities to demand takedowns of social media posts and profiles critical of the government.
Press Freedoms in India
The release said that attacks on the media have been on the rise in India since PM Narendra Modi came to power in 2014. The journalist group’s president, Jodie Ginsberg, said, “Journalists critical of the government and the BJP party have been jailed, harassed, and surveilled in retaliation for their work.”
She also called on the US to make the issue of free and independent media in India, the world’s largest democracy, the “core element of discussions.”
The statement was released during a virtual panel discussion on “India’s Press Freedom Crisis,” which had panellists including Kashmir Times newspaper’s executive editor, Anuradha Bhasin, and Outlook magazine’s senior editor, Shahina K.K.
They discussed the use of censorship through “vicious” attacks on the press. Shahina discussed her “ongoing battle” to fight terrorism charges that were filed by the ruling BJP party’s government in Karnataka in response to her “investigative reporting.”