The editor of The Milli Gazette, Dr Zafarul-Islam Khan has alleged that the Modi government is hounding his publication and has launched a multi-pronged attack in an attempt to shut it down. While the community-oriented publication has tottered on the brink since inception for lack of adequate response and support from Muslims, the government moves, Dr Khan fears, are aimed at pushing it over the precipice.

On March 12 this year, The Milli Gazette published a news report filed by a freelance journalist, Pushp Sharma. Basing himself on one of the documents he had received from the Union Ayush Ministry in response to an RTI query, Sharma claimed that in its recruitment, the ministry had discriminated against Muslims.  

The ministry issued a press statement the same day claiming that the document Sharma relied on for his report was “fabricated” and that the report was “clearly aimed at causing chasm between different sections of society and promoting disharmony and mistrust with ulterior motives”.

In an email received by SabrangIndia, Dr Khan maintains that though the publication stood by the report it was “all-along ready to publish a rejoinder, statement or clarification should the ministry send it to us.” The ministry, however, chose to file a police complaint.

“As a result, the journalist (Pushp Sharma), who wrote that story, was mercilessly interrogated for days and later arrested and jailed for around two weeks. Now he is out on bail while the case takes its normal slow course in courts”.

While the case against Sharma follows its own course, Dr Khan alleges that the Press Council and the Delhi police are out to get the publication itself. The show cause notice issued to The Milli Gazette by the Delhi police is a step towards the declaration of the publication as illegal.

Set up by the Indian Parliament in 1966, the Press Council of India is a regulatory body with the power to censure a publication at worst. The Council’s suo motu action against The Milli Gazette, Dr Khan alleges is “unprecedented” as “an authority supposedly created to protect the freedom of press, was in fact throttling that same cherished freedom”.   

Here is the full text of the email sent out by Dr Khan:

During the 17 years of our existence, The Milli Gazette has faced many threats and challenges. I myself have received numerous death threats. MG’s continued losses, dwindling subscriptions due to our own website and a disinterest by the community too have been our problems which forced us twice to think of closing down MG though on second and third thoughts we refrained from taking such a drastic step knowing very well that, however feeble, our community needs this voice in English more than at any time in the past and this voice mattered not only in India but across the world.

Now, since March 12 this year, we are facing an existential threat from the Modi government following our publication of a report on discrimination against Muslims in the Ayush ministry recruitments based on an RTI reply which the said ministry denied.

It could have sent a rejoinder or, at worst, could have complained to the concerned regulatory authority, the Press Council of India in case we refused to publish its rejoinder. We were all-along ready to publish a rejoinder, statement or clarification should the ministry send it to us. Instead, it chose to file a police complaint.

As a result, the journalist (Pushp Sharma), who wrote that story, was mercilessly interrogated for days and later arrested and jailed for around two weeks. Now he is out on bail while the case takes its normal slow course in courts.

Soon, on April 21, the Press Council of India took suo motu cognisance and opened a case against The Milli Gazette. This action was unprecedented as an authority supposedly created to protect the freedom of press, was in fact throttling that same cherished freedom. We have replied to PCI’s letter and the case continues. Our next hearing at the PCI is on July 12.

A third bolt came from the Delhi police (directly controlled by the Union home ministry) when DCP Licensing wrote to us on May 30 as to why our newspaper declaration should not be cancelled. Cancellation of the declaration means the newspaper will become illegal. We replied without fail to this show-cause notice and are still waiting for further clarifications from the DCP Licensing despite the passage of over three weeks on our hand-delivered reply.

All these drastic steps were taken to deal with an ordinary report which could have been tackled through a press statement like the one CBI issued on 15 June this year describing a Times of India report about CBI’s soft-pedalling over the Vyapam scandal. The CBI issued a press statement the same day saying the report is “speculative & presumptuous and hence, is strongly denied.” Strong words indeed, but we are not aware if CBI, PCI or DCP Licensing have sprung into action against the Times of India. Do we have two standards: one for small publications and another for big giants?

This three-pronged attack on MG simply shows the desperation of the Modi government to silence this little nagging bird. We are fighting and will continue to fight against this injustice through all legal venues open to us. But should the Modi government succeed in silencing this feeble voice, we will call it a day and will leave it to history to remember this as yet another colossal injustice to the freedom of Press the like of which was inflicted by the colonial rulers on Maulana Azad’s Al-Balagh and Muhammad Ali’s Hamdard and Comrade.  

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Sharma has been harassed from the get go, with the police pressuring him into revealing his source. This however, seems to be within the policy of the current dispensation to crush all dissent.

Since his arrest, several Human Rights groups and organisations have spoken out against the treatment handed to Sharma.

The latest to do so is the Delhi Union of Journalists who believe that a journalist must not be pressured to reveal his/her sources. The full text of the Delhi Union of Journalists' press statement can be found below:

DUJ STATEMENT:

The Curious Case of Pushp Sharma Journalist 

‘A journalist has the right to protect his source’- DUJ
 
 
The Delhi Union of Journalists condemns police moves to question journalist Pushp Sharma regarding the source of his story in the Milli Gazette which alleged that the Ministry of Ayush discriminated against Muslims by not appointing them to teach yoga.
 
 Sharma was arrested in Delhi earlier this year under IPC sections 153A (promoting hatred among communities) and 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) as well as section 466 (forgery of record of court or of public register). The police say that he based his story on a false RTI reply, but what is curious is why the case became a criminal one. 
 
DUJ believes, first and foremost, that a journalist must not be pressured to reveal his sources. Further, criminal action in such cases, is an overreaction. The Ministry of Ayush could have simply rebutted the story and resorted to civil remedies, such as a complaint to the Press Council of India, instead of initiating a criminal case and inviting charges of high handedness and an attack on press freedom.  Meanwhile, a Newslaundry investigation seems to reveal the existence of a source which the journalist wants to keep secret.

S.K Pande, President
Sujata Madhok, General Secretary
 

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