The Indian Police on Tuesday searched the homes of journalists linked to the digital media Newsclick, accused by the authorities of money laundering and being linked to a Chinese propaganda network, a power with which the country maintains a regional rivalry, in some raids criticized by the Press Club of India.
“The (New) Delhi Police have arrived at my house, they are taking my laptop and my phone,” journalist Abhisar Sharma denounced on the social network X, formerly Twitter.
A story similar to that shared by information professional Bhasha Singh, who turned to social networks to write her “last tweet” from her phone, confiscated by the special cell of the Capital Police.
An Interior Ministry official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the raids were carried out on the homes of more than a dozen journalists and other writers linked to Newsclick. “We have not arrested anyone and search operations continue,” he said.
The Press Club of India expressed in a statement its “deep concern over the searches carried out at the homes of journalists and writers associated with Newsclick”, and the body assured that it is following the case.
These records are linked to several cases involving alleged illegal foreign funding of the online media Newsclick, the latest of which was brought under strict anti-terrorism legislation, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), an Indian security agency specializing in economic crimes, and the Tax Department already carried out searches at Newsclick offices in 2021.
Prabir Purkayastha, editor-in-chief of the publication, then denounced that the authorities confiscated the phones of dozens of journalists, while defending the innocence of the outlet and the attempts to stifle freedom of expression in the Asian country.
These new raids, after in addition to the case presented under an anti-terrorism law denounced as draconian, come after a report published by the American newspaper New York Times included Newsclick among a series of media involved in the dissemination of Chinese propaganda and financed by a American millionaire, Neville Roy Singham.
A statement by the INDIA alliance, a coalition of 28 opposition political parties, alleged that in the last nine years, the government has deliberately persecuted and repressed the media through the use of investigative agencies.
The “coercive” actions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government are “targeted only against those media outlets and journalists who speak truth to power,” the coalition said.
A spokesman for President Modi’s ruling nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the raids were justified because foreign funding to media groups must be assessed by investigative agencies.
India has fallen to 161st place in the World Press Freedom Index, an annual ranking of 180 countries by the nonprofit Reporters Without Borders, from 150th place last year, its lowest ever. Modi’s government rejects the group’s conclusions, questions its methodology and says India has a vibrant and free press.
