It was a vote of thanks, brief but with a punch. The occasion was the 16^th 16th Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards held in Delhi. The Chief Justice of India (CJI), DY Chandrachud had just delivered the keynote address after presenting these awards.The speaker was Raj Kamal Jha, editor in chief of Indian Express, cap in place, dressed in his signature black with bright red socks.

Raj Kamal Jha said for journalists and journalism, year after year, case after case, their starlight has illuminated the road ahead. Jha joked, “We have the privilege of the presence of the honourable Chief Justice. And there is absolutely nothing in a sealed cover. This is a vote of thanks but in the times we live in, I want to say there will be no vote – there will just be thanks here.”

Jha went on to affirm his faith in the Supreme Court that he said would remain the North Star.

“For journalists and journalism, year after year, case after case, their starlight has illuminated the road ahead. That’s why, when the lights dim, when a reporter is arrested under a law meant for terrorists, when another is arrested for asking a question, when a university teacher is picked up for sharing a cartoon, a college student for a speech, a film star for a comment, or when a rejoinder to a story comes in the form of a police FIR – we turn to the North Star for its guiding light.”

Unsurprisingly, his brief vote of thanks, delivered in the presence of politicians from the ruling party and opposition, union minister for I & B, Anurag Thakur and senior counsel and Rajya Sabha member, Kapil Sibal created a storm on twitter. In these days of studied silences, when voices do speak, people listen.

Related:

‘Press must remain free if a country is to remain a democracy’: CJI DY Chandrachud

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Human Rights Defenders’ Alert India (HRDA) is a Tamil Nadu based Human Rights forum that works towards initiating actions on behalf of Human Rights Defenders under threat or with security concerns.

This forum of Human Rights Defenders has written to National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), expressing concern regarding the harassment, fabricated charges and wrongful arrest of journalist Saleem Khan by police officials in Madhya Pradesh.

They have alleged that on October 25, 2020, Saleem Khan visited the mandi in Panna district, where he witnessed an ongoing dispute between the vegetable vendors and other shopkeepers over slots in the mandi. Local TV journalist Durgesh Shishvhare from Sadhana News was also present to cover a story at the mandi and as they were doing their work, both were stopped by one Mohammad Iliyas, a vegetable vendor, and his friends.

The two journalists did not wish to enter into an altercation and hence, stopped taking photographs and video footage. Later that day, Saleem Khan published an article about the lack of amenities to shopkeepers at the mandi on his news portal including comments of the mandi secretary Rajkumar Dwivedi.

As he sent links of the story on WhatsApp, he received threatening messages from Iliyas, and complained about it to the then Superintendent of Police (SP) Mayank Awasthi. He was later called to the Police Station on December 27 last year and was made to wait for around five hours.

Eventually, around 3 PM, Sub-Inspector at the Panna police station Balveer Singh took Saleem to the officer in charge, Inspector Arun Soni who told him that they were placing him under arrest and confiscated his mobile phone.

Soni informed him that there were several complaints against him. The HRDA complaint states how Khan was denied to speak to his lawyer. He was arrested on the basis of an FIR filed by Mohammad Iliyas who alleged that Saleem Khan had abused, assaulted and threatened him on December 23, 2020, in the presence of several eyewitnesses.

Saleem Khan, who was initially booked for causing voluntary hurt, uttering obscene words in public and criminal intimidation was granted bail but the police withheld his mobile phone and gave it only after several calls from his lawyers. The police subsequently added section 386 (extortion) of the Indian Penal Code to his FIR, which is a non-bailable offence.

The complaint filed by HRDA alleged that neither an arrest memo was created at time of the arrest, nor a seizure memo was given to the jailed journalist for seizure of his phone. Further the complaint states that, “Mr. Khan was not allowed to call his lawyer despite his request, a violation of his right as mentioned in the DK Basu guidelines. He was asked to come to the police station under the false pretext of picking up a copy of his FIR, not told of the charges or questioned the entire day.”

The case against Khan seems to be a case of abuse of power and fabricated charges on him due to his reportage, as per HRDA. They have also questioned as to why the charges of extortion were added to his FIR later, despite there being no mention in the complaint.

Emphasising on the important work journalists do, the complaint to NHRC states that Journalists are human rights defenders as they face major risks as a result of their work both from the state and out of state actors. “The protection of journalists and human rights defenders, and ending impunity for attacks against them, is a global priority for safeguarding freedom of expression,” read the complaint.

Observing that the fourth pillar of the democracy will crumble if journalists are charged in fake cases every time, they try to bring a story to light, the human rights forum appealed the Commission to undertake an urgent, transparent and impartial investigation into the flouting of arrest procedures and the fabricated charges on Human Rights Defender Mr. Saleem Khan.

Directions have been sought from the Director General of Police of Madhya Pradesh, to take urgent and strict actions against the Mr. Mayank Awasthi, (the then) Superintendent of Police, Panna, Inspector Arun Soni, Sub-Inspector Balveer Singh, and other police personnel of the Panna police station.

They have also sought directions to the Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh to provide compensation of Rs. 1,00,000 to Mr. Saleem Khan for the mental trauma inflicted upon him by the personnel of the Panna police station.

The entire complaint to NHRC may be read here:

Related:

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Delhi HC quashes defamation case against Mitali Saran over RSS article

J&K journalists allege soldiers assaulted them during a show

Kaimur firing: HRDA appeals to NHRC for urgent action

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Free Speech Collective, a group comprising journalists, lawyers and activists, that aims to protect the right to freedom of expression and to vigorously promote free speech and the right to dissent in India has released its report titled Behind Bars that looks at the arrest and detention of journalists in India between 2010 and 2020. The report finds, “A sharp rise in criminal cases lodged against journalists in India for their work, with a majority of cases in BJP-ruled states, has contributed to the deterioration in the climate for free speech in India.”

The report highlights shocking statistics to back its claims, “In the last decade, 154 journalists in India were arrested, detained, interrogated or served show cause notices for their professional work and a little over 40 per cent of these instances were in 2020. Nine foreign journalists faced deportation, arrest and interrogations or were denied entry into India.”

Shedding light on who has launched this war on journalism, the report says, “Seventy-three of the 154 cases documented in this study have been reported from BJP-ruled states. Another 30 cases were reported from states ruled by BJP and its National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Of the cases in BJP-ruled states, Uttar Pradesh led the pack with 29 cases. Other instances are from states under President’s Rule or Governor’s rule, directly under the control of the Union government.”

The report also finds, “Apart from cases under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), ‘terror’ related charges and sedition have also been increasingly applied against journalists.” Moreover, “Politicians and corporate houses have filed criminal defamation cases seeking damages in crores and SLAPP suits while there are gags on media coverage of sensitive cases.”

Hostile and dismissive attitude of the government

Illustrating the government’s role in enabling a culture of hostility towards journalism, the report says, “India’s ranking has been slipping steadily in various national and international indices on safety of journalists, freedom of expression and human rights. At the beginning of the year, India’s Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Jawadekar debunked ratings by international organisations and announced the setting up of a review by senior Indian journalists.”

 It gives the example of what transpired at the beginning of the ill-conceived lockdown in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, “The hostile and dismissive attitude of the government towards independent media reportage and the criminalising of journalists for their reports were nowhere more marked than in the first few months of the lockdown announced by the Union government in March 2020. An advisory was issued by the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY) on March 20, 2020, to all social media platforms to ‘inform users not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, update or share any information that may affect public order and unlawful in any way.’ A meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and select media owners to ensure positive articles about the pandemic followed this on March 24.”

Propaganda and demonisation of Muslims

The report notes, “The end of the decade has also marked the rise of a highly polarized and partisan media. Blatantly fuelling false and inciting news coverage, this — mainly broadcast — media indulged in propaganda, demonisation of Muslims and peddled false information.”

It quoted a report by the Campaign Against Hate that pointed out that the “demonisation of Muslims in the case of the Tablighi Jamaat cluster was in continuation with media’s characterisation of the anti-CAA protestors as anti-nationals. In both cases, the message from sections of the media was that these individuals and communities were not entitled to full constitutional rights.”

UAPA, Sedition and other serious charges

The report says, “Journalists have been arrested and face court cases on ‘terror’ and ‘conspiracy’ charges under sections in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA), Official Secrets Act (OSA), sedition, spreading communal disharmony, trespass, cheating, criminal conspiracy in the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860, obscenity under the Information Technology Act, 2000, the Disaster Management Act, 2005, the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 and prohibitory orders under Sec 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973.”

It gives examples of journalists languishing behind bars, “Two journalists –Aasif Sultan of the Kashmir Narrator and Siddique Kappan of Azhimukham – are still in custody on charges under the UAPA while a third, Prashant Rahi, has been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. On June 25, 2019, Ghulam Jeelani Qadri, journalist and publisher of the Urdu-language newspaper Daily Afaaq from Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, was arrested on charges under the now lapsed Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1985!”

States leading the charge against journalists

The report finds that Uttar Pradesh rules the roost with a total of 29 cases against journalists in the 2010-2020 period, followed by Chhattisgarh (17), Jammu and Kashmir (16), Tamil Nadu (15), with Delhi and Maharashtra tied for the fifth spot with 10 cases each.

The entire report may be read here: 

Related:

Uttar Pradesh: Photographer who clicked farmer being hit by police ‘attacked, beaten’

Kashmir journalist assaulted, harassed by Cyber Police, for article on cyberbullying

Indian journalists decry attack on freedom of press amidst Covid-19

End harassment of Kashmiri journalists, lawyers: Kashmir Reading Room

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Chennai: Veteran Tamil journalist R R Gopal, the editor of Tamil bi-weekly ‘Nakkeeran,’ was arrested by the Chennai City Police on Tuesday morning, reportedly on a complaint from Governor Banwarilal Purohit’s office.
 
Gopal was arrested early morning at Chennai Airport and he was scheduled to fly to Pune for an event. The police are reportedly filling a defamation or sedition case against him.
 
Police sources said Gopal has been booked under section 124 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) or on charges of preventing the president and governor from discharging their duties.
 
He has been arrested for publishing an article against TN governor Purohit which involved a ‘sex scandal’ where an assistant professor was reportedly ‘luring and supplying’ young girls to senior officials in another university.
 
“Nakkeeran has published a cover photo in its current edition of the governor and assistant professor Nirmala Devi, who was arrested on charges of attempting to lure college girls for extending sexual favours to senior officials of the leading Madurai Kamaraj University. Devi, an assistant professor at the Devanga Arts College in Aruppukottai of Virudhunagar district, was arrested in April last year after an audio clip of her purported conversation with her students was shared on social media. She was also heard claiming in the clip that she has close contact with the governor and senior officials,” reported Hindustan Times.
 
“Nakkheeran also alleged in its report that Devi, who is under the custody of the crime investigation department’s crime branch, has said she met the governor four times. The governor is the chancellor of Madurai Kamaraj University to which the Devanga Arts College is affiliated. Purohit has denied the allegations and said he does not know Devi,” the report said.
 
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief Vaiko was detained on Tuesday when he tried to enter Chintadripet police station where Gopal is being held, ANI reported. “I sought permission to meet him but police are not allowing me,” Vaiko told reporters outside the police station. “This arrest shows the threatening attitude of the authorities towards independent journalists. Is there governor’s rule in the state? I blame the state government.”
 

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Prabhat Singh is a human rights defender and journalist, reporting for Patrika newspaper on the situation in the tribal region of Bastar. During the past three months, he has been reporting on allegedly false cases brought against tribal villagers in the areas of Chhattisgarh affected by an insurgency by Maoist groups. He has also reported on harassment of and attacks on human rights defenders and journalists in the region. He has been a strong critic of the Chhattisgarh police and has played a key role in highlighting several cases of police brutality and involvement in human rights violations in the Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh. Prabhat Singh has also played a vital role in organising peaceful protests and discussions devoted to the drafting and implementation of a law that would ensure the independence and security of journalists reporting from areas affected by the Maoist conflict in Bastar.
 
On March 26, 2016, Prabhat Singh's request for bail was denied at a court hearing at the CJM in Jagdalpur. The Court also refused an application by the police for the extension of Prabhat Singh's police custody and ordered the human rights defender to be sent to the Jagdalpur Central Jail, where he will remain in judicial custody at least until the next court session on April 13, 2016. The police will be required to report on the investigation's progress at this session, and the Court will then decide on whether to release Prabhat Singh from judicial custody. A medical report was produced before the judge during the hearing, stating that no injuries had been discovered during a prior examination of the human rights defender. Prabhat Singh opposed the report, claiming that he had never been examined by a doctor and had been forced to sign the report. The judge, however, did not take his objections into account.

During the court hearing, which was conducted amidst a heavy police presence, the human rights defender denied all the accusations against him, claiming that the cases had been opened in reprisal for his critical reporting, including his revelation of large-scale fraud at the Aadhaar facilitation centre in Geedam and the mentioned school. After the court hearing took place, Prabhat Singh was returned into custody.
 
On  22,March 2016, Prabhat Singh was officially charged by the CJM in Jagdalpur under section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) and 67(A) of the Information Technology Act, as well as section 292 (publication of obscene or scurrilous matter) of the Indian Penal Code, for allegedly posting an “obscene message” about a senior police officer on the WhatsApp group “Bastar News”. On the same day, the human rights defender was also charged in three other cases from 2015. In two of these cases, Prabhat Singh was charged under sections 420, 120B and 35 of the Indian Penal Code for alleged fraud linked to his work at the Aadhaar Facilitation Centre in Dantewada. In the third case the human rights defender was accused of taking pictures of female students from Geedam Higher Secondary School without permission, and manhandling an examiner and demanding money from him. The charges were brought under sections 448, 385, 353, 186, 34 of the Indian Penal Code and section 6 of Chhattisgarh Examination Act.
 
During the court hearing, which was conducted amidst a heavy police presence, the human rights defender denied all the accusations against him, claiming that the cases had been opened in reprisal for his critical reporting, including his revelation of large-scale fraud at the Aadhaar facilitation centre in Geedam and the mentioned school. After the court hearing took place, Prabhat Singh was returned into custody.
 
On March 21,  2016, a white-coloured Bolero car stopped in front of the office of the Patrika newspaper in Dantewada. Several policemen in plain clothes got out of it and without presenting an arrest warrant, picked Prabhat Singh up and put him in the car. The human rights defender was then taken to the Parpa Police station in Bastar, where he was detained over-night.

While in custody the human rights defender was beaten and sharp objects were used to cut his hands. Police officers also verbally abused and made death threats against him, forcing him to sign several blank pieces of paper, which allegedly were subsequently used to fabricate the medical report.  

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