CLOSED: The Mirror brand of the Times of India Group was shut down without any notice on December 5 2020.

By Kavitha Iyer,

When a little-known YouTube channel posted a video on February 11 calling for some of India’s most prominent journalists to “be hanged”, it marked a new danger for India’s free press. The video was shared by a host of right-wing figures calling for execution of at least five senior journalists, all from India’s group of independent online news media.

Among those named in the video, which claimed to reveal a “money trail” between journalists and an “anti-India conspiracy” to draw attention to protests by thousands of farmers, were Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, Washington Post columnist Rana Ayyub, independent journalist Faye D’Souza, television anchor and owner of Mojo Story Barkha Dutt, senior editor of The Wire Arfa Khanum Sherwani, transparency activist and former journalist Saket Gokhale, YouTuber Dhruv Rathee and several news org
The claims in the video were soon found to be fake, but that did not matter.
Acknowledging it violated their policy on hate and bullying, YouTube took down the video later that day, But by then it had clocked half a million views. Twitter handles of those who identified themselves as “swayamsevak”, “proud Hindu”, a spokesperson for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and some claiming to bust propaganda, each with tens of thousands of follower, backed the video and its claims.

A new low
The call for executing journalists appeared to cross a rubicon in rising attacks against India’s independent journalists and media over the last five years, marked in 2020 by a surge of government raids and criminal cases. The police took no action against the man who called for the hangings.
If in 2015-’16, channels found themselves receiving tersely worded show-cause notices or were called “presstitutes” by a cabinet minister, later years witnessed a gradual choking of independent voices in the media through criminal cases, pressure to self-censor and drop opinion pieces by columnists that the government found uncomfortable. Top editors resigned or were fired (here, here and here) over disagreements on censorship by owners.
These attacks soared in 2019 and 2020, most of all in Kashmir, which appears to have served as a proving ground, as journalists in the conflict-ridden region faced rising intimidation and surveillance after Article 370 of the Indian Constitution was abrogated in August 2019. “There was a lot of official dissatisfaction with the way we covered the Gujarat killings of 2002 at the Times Of India, and the government [of Bharatiya Janata Party Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee] found ways to communicate this to management, and this was in turn communicated to us, but we never had to stop doing the work we were doing, and we never really came under that pressure,” he said. “What’s happening now is qualitatively very different from anything i have seen since 1995, frankly.”
He said the media’s “willingness to play the government’s game” makes the current situation more dangerous, for media proprietors and editors are less likely to resist government suggestions or pressure today “than at any time in the recent past”.
It is very coordinated, across platforms,” according to Rana Ayyub, who said while she had been subjected to threats and online harassment for years, attackers now appeared to work in tandem on various social-media platforms and are emboldened enough to accuse her of terrorism and to name and abuse her family.
Arrests, raids, sedition cases
In tandem with what clearly appeared to be engineered social media anger against specified journalists and organisations, the latest move against the media was a marathon raid by the Enforcement Directorate at the house of Prabir Purkayastha, editor-in-chief of news website Newsclick.
The raid at Purkayastha’s home continued for nearly 114 hours, with the 73-year-old editor and his 67-year-old partner, the writer Gita Hariharan, detained at home until the raiding team left early on February 14. The office of Newsclick was also subjected to a 36-hour raid during which some equipment was seized.
Some news reports, mainly from pro-government websites, claimed the Enforcement Directorate raid was linked to foreign remittances of Rs 30.51 crore, information that the website said was a selective leaking of “misleading facts”. A Newsclick statement said: “It also constitutes a violation of the sanctity of the legal and investigative process.”
A lawyer from Phoenix Legal, a firm representing NewsClick and its directors, was quoted in the Indian Express as saying their clients were not aware why they were being investigated. “We are ourselves in the dark and we don’t know exactly why we are being investigated,” the lawyer said.
They did not know if the raid was in connection with a particular First Information Report.
Digipub, of which Purkayastha is vice-president, said in a statement that Newsclick sought to “hold power accountable” and the raid was “a clear attempt to suppress journalism critical of the government and its allies”. Newsclick had reported the farmers’ protests extensively (here, here and here).

Chilling effect
The use of these executive powers has a “chilling effect” on overall reportage, journalists said.
“I never imagined I would see a day when the chill would spread through the country, when I would fear for the safety of my colleagues going out to report in the national capital,” Supriya Sharma, executive editor of Scroll, who covered Chhattisgarh’s conflict between Maoists and security forces, told Article 14.
In June, the Uttar Pradesh police filed an FIR against Sharma under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, and under sections 501 (printing defamatory matter) and 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the Indian Penal Code.
The case was filed following a report by Sharma on the effects of the Covid-19 lockdown on residents of Varanasi district, the prime minister’s constituency. A woman villager who Sharma interviewed reportedly complained to the police later alleging that her comments had been misrepresented. In August 2020, the Allahabad High Court granted Sharma protection from immediate arrest.
Sharma said the government had criminalised factually accurate, “fair and balanced” reporting, “because it communicates more than just the government’s version of events”.
of State, in response to questions on India’s farm laws and the protests, the Press Trust of India and ANI reported that the Biden administration had backed the contentious laws.
These reports were republished online by major news media, including the Economic Times, NDTV, Republic and Times Now, with headlines announcing that the new laws now had US backing.
In fact, the US State Department statement, while cautiously welcoming “steps that would improve the efficiency of India’s markets”, called for dialogue with the farmers and underlined that peaceful protests and freedom of expression are the “hallmark” of a democracy.
That it is the foreign media doing investigative journalism in and about India should raise some difficult questions, said Ayyub, the Washington Post columnist. “Why have we not been able to do a single damning expose in Indian publications in the last five years?” she said. “…This is the time to take a stand and take an aggressive stand. Journalism is not even in danger, they have managed to intimidate us into silence, that process has happened.”
Said the Interpreter, published by Sydney-based think tank Lowy Institute, about the recent arrests of and FIRs against journalists: “For a nation whose Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of speech and expression, the recent escalating assaults on its media is a worrying and damaging development. The noose around dissent is getting tighter” in states ruled by the BJP.
Ayyub said the “centrism” that has taken hold of much of mainstream media’s approach to news coverage was “disappointing” and was evidence of editors playing a “both-sides game” to appear objective.
Polarised atmosphere
The detentions and hostility towards journalists further vitiates an increasingly polarised political atmosphere: the media too are divided, with inflammatory reportage and social media posts, including hate speech, from mainly pro-government journalists with no legal consequences.
On February 11, Zee News anchor Aman Chopra tweeted a photograph of a smiling Munawar Farooqui, posted by the stand-up comedian after his release from jail. In Hindi, Chopra captioned the photo to say his “blood is boiling” on seeing the smiling Farooqui, who he said appeared to show “no remorse” after “abusing” Hindu deities Ram and Sita, which Farooqui never did.
As Article 14 reported in January, Farooqui was arrested in the midst of his act in Indore on January 7 after Hindu vigilantes claimed that the comedian had “poked fun” at Hindu gods and goddesses during his act. Police admitted to Article 14 that no jokes were made about Hinduism, but Farooqui stayed in custody until the first week of February, when the Supreme Court granted him interim bail.
He had spent more than a month in jail for a joke he did not crack.
Chopra’s tweet received 14,600 “likes”.
On January 31, veteran journalist Coomi Kapoor wrote that the number of journalists covering the current session of Parliament had been restricted to the “bare minimum”, alongside several other more visible changes within the Parliament complex, some of it possibly on account of the construction activity for a new Parliament building and the social distancing norms in place.
“But the reason for not renewing Lok Sabha passes for accredited journalists in the Long and Distinguished category seems part of a larger pattern for shrinking the media space,” she wrote.

Intangible challenges
There are also intangible challenges for journalists who have encountered government hostility, including loss of credibility and a sense of fear about continuing to do investigative work.
Rachna Khaira was a Jalandhar-based staff reporter at The Tribune, when she reported a data breach in the Aadhaar system. A case of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and various charges under the IT Act, 2000 and Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 followed, against her and the publication.
Khaira also faces a defamation suit for reporting lapses in an orphanage in Jalandhar, even though scrutiny by a civil judge in 2016 acknowledged the lapses.
Khaira continues to receive tip-offs meriting investigation into data breaches, but is unable to verify the facts. “With one FIR against me already, I find no way to go further with my investigation,” she told Article 14. In a small town, the attention was stifling.
Dixit said while she drew strength from friends, colleagues and senior journalists, reporters in smaller towns have no institutional or peer support and continue to work despite the odds. “The Delhi-based press bodies mostly respond to situations when journalists in Delhi’s power corridors are affected,” said Dixit. “Otherwise they don’t.”
Sharma of Scroll said the farmers’ protest movement has spread word about the worsening climate for press freedoms into the hinterland, especially in states where the protests are intense.
“Lakhs of ordinary Indians in these states are now able to identify major TV news channels and newspapers as vehicles for government propaganda,” she said. “The term godi media [referring to a lapdog, from the HIndi word ‘godi’ for lap] has gone mainstream.”
As more and more news consumers rely on non-legacy media outlets and independent reporters, a crackdown against such reporting has gathered pace.
Those on the frontlines said they would persevere. Rajendran of TheNewsMinute said regardless of the government is in power, those who have resolved to speak truth to power will continue to do so.
“All these organisations and journalists named now in the YouTube video have a large body of work and some of their biggest stories were against the United Progressive Alliance regime. Were they branded anti-national then?” she said. “When one government becomes more problematic than another, the questions will become tougher.”
Ayyub said since India’s government would not accept its responsibility towards nurturing a free press or even accept a free press, journalists needed to support journalists more.
“Our journalism bodies, associations, everybody needs to understand that just because they are centrist does not keep them safe – that’s an illusion,” said Ayyub. “Once they’re done with us, they will come after them.”
Kavitha Iyer is an independent journalist based in Mumbai.
This report first appeared on Article-14.com, a project that tracks misuse of the law and the hope it offers.

Support our journalism by contributing to Scroll Ground Reporting Fund. We welcome your comments at letters@scroll.in.