[Journalists' protest at Press Club of India Wednesday October 04, 2023.]
New Delhi: Over a dozen organisations of journalists and writers Wednesday October 04, 2023 wrote a letter to Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud seeking his intervention in the wake of raids by Delhi Police Special Cell on those working for or associated in some way with news portal NewsClick.
“There have been many instances in the past many years when assaults on the free press by the State have required judicial intervention, and we continue to pursue such cases. But the development over the past 24 hours have left us with no option but to appeal to your good conscience to take cognisance and intervene before it is too late and an autocratic police state becomes a norm”, the organisations of the journalists said in their letter addressed to the Chief Justice of India.
The letter comes a day after Delhi Police Special Cell raided the homes of 46 journalists, editors, writers, professionals working with or associated in one or the other with NewsClick.
The Delhi Police after the day-long interrogation of these journalists, arrested NewsClick founder and Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha and Amit Chakravarty, the HR head of the news portal under the stringent UAPA Act.
“As journalists and news professionals, we are always ready and willing to cooperate with any bona fide investigation. However, ad hoc, sweeping seizures and interrogations cannot be considered acceptable in any democratic country, let alone one that has begun advertising itself as the ‘mother of democracy’”, they said in their letter. “This letter is an earnest appeal to the sentinel on the qui vive, weather-beaten as that phrase may have become – an appeal from one institution that is essential for the exercise of freedom and democracy in India, to one this is Supreme and is sworn to protect the Constitution that enshrines those freedoms”, the journalists wrote.
“As journalists and news professionals, we are always ready and willing to cooperate with any bona fide investigation. However, ad hoc, sweeping seizures and interrogations cannot be considered acceptable in any democratic country, let alone one that has begun advertising itself as the ‘mother of democracy’”, they said in their letter.
“This letter is an earnest appeal to the sentinel on the qui vive, weather-beaten as that phrase may have become – an appeal from one institution that is essential for the exercise of freedom and democracy in India, to one this is Supreme and is sworn to protect the Constitution that enshrines those freedoms”, the journalists wrote.
In their letter, the journalists also reminded Chief Justice Chandrachud how he advocated, within and outside the court, about the duty of the press to speak truth to power.
The journalists in their letter also reminded Justice Chandrachud who had said that India’s freedom will be safe as long as journalists can play this role without being chilled by a threat of reprisal.
“The fact is that today, a large sections of journalists in India finds itself working under the threat of reprisal. And it is imperative that the Judiciary confronts Power with a fundamental Truth – that there is a Constituent to which we are all answerable”, the journalists wrote in their letter.
Seeking the intervention of the Chief Justice, the journalists also requested him to ask courts to frame norms to discourage the seizure of phones and laptops on a whim, evolve guidelines for the interrogation of the journalists, and find ways to ensure the accountability of State agencies and individual officers who are found over stepping the law or wilfully misleading courts with vague and open-ended investigations against journalists for their journalistic work.
Also today, a huge number of journalists, writers and activists gathered at Press Club of India in New Delhi and protested the raids on the journalists by Delhi Police Special Cell.
The protesting journalists were holding placards and banners reading “No to the misuse of power to stifle the questioning of power” and “No to the McCarthyism of the Indian Media”.
The protesting journalists were also wearing a black badge written with “Free the Press”.
Besides others who addressed the protesting journalists at Press Club of India, Veteran Journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta who was also questioned by the Special Cell of Delhi Police Tuesday spoke at length sharing the details of his interrogation with those present.
There were also commotion for few minutes after a person who claimed himself to be a journalist showed a banner that read “Cheen ke dalalo ko jail bhejo (Chinese agents should be sent to jail”.
Meanwhile, a parallel protest condemning the raids on journalists were also held at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. More than 500 students and activists gathered at Jantar Mantar and registered their protest.
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