Vienna: The International Press Institute has warned that freedom of the press in India faces a rapid downward spiral as journalists are being targeted by the government in a bid to control the narrative in the country on the COVID-19 pandemic.
It alleged that the Indian government had resorted to various tactics to prevent independent media from reporting about the pandemic, adding that in a “blatant” attempt to stifle press freedom, on March 31 the government unsuccessfully petitioned the country’s Supreme Court to bar the media from publishing information about COVID-19 that had not been cleared by the government. The court refused to intervene but directed the media to “refer to and publish” the official version of the developments.
“While India’s Supreme Court rightly declined to go along with a backhanded effort to control the narrative around COVID-19, officials at various levels of government have continued to target journalists, who have refused to bow to pressure”, IPI Deputy Director Scott Griffen said. “Independent journalism is an essential partner in protecting public health. We urge the Indian authorities to ensure that all journalists are able to do their job of informing the public at this critical time.”
Criminal case against journalist
The IPI noted in its report that a day after the Supreme Court refused to allow the government to censor the media, police in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which is governed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, filed a criminal case on April 1 against Siddharth Varadarajan, chief editor of The Wire, a news website. The case was filed on the basis of a complaint filed by a lawyer alleging that an article published in The Wire intended to spread fake news against the chief minister of the state.
The article had mentioned that the state’s chief minister was planning to organise a religious festival during the lockdown, which had led to public anger. The case sparked off protests by journalists, activists, writers, academics and many others. More than 200 journalists issued a statement on April 11 describing the case against Varadarajan as a “brazen attempt to muzzle the media”.
Police action
This was followed by a statement on April 14 by some 3,500 jurists, academics, actors, artists and writers expressing shock at the action of the police. On April 16, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting served a notice to a private television channel, Public TV, in Bengaluru for airing a programme in which it was claimed that the government was planning to drop money from helicopters to the poor during the nationwide lockdown imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19. The channel said that the programme was a serious discussion on the concept of helicopter money and did not mention that the government would actually drop money from helicopters. “Helicopter money” is a term used in India to describe the quantitative easing policy, where more money is pumped into the market.
The IPI said that legal cases were also brought against two journalists on the charge of spreading fake news. Pawan Choudhary, a journalist in the state of Bihar, was arrested by the police on the charge of spreading misinformation through his social media account. Another case was filed against a journalist in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh on similar charges. Journalists had also become victims of police violence soon after the government imposed a lockdown on March 24.
