October 3, 2023 will go down as a grim day for press freedom in India. At around 6:00 am on Tuesday, the homes of 46 journalists and contributors linked to the Newsclick news website, as well as other left-wing personalities, were searched simultaneously in New Delhi and Bombay. The people concerned were then taken to police premises for questioning. The site's founder and editor-in-chief, Prabir Purkayastha, and head of human resources, Amit Chakravarty, were taken into custody. The offices are under seal. The authorities have accused Newsclick of having received Chinese funds.
The operation, which mobilized 500 police officers, was carried out under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, a formidable piece of old anti-terrorism legislation that makes bail very difficult to obtain. Detainees can remain in prison for months, even years, without trial. Aritry Das, one of the journalists apprehended, testified on X (formerly Twitter) that police had broken into her home and seized her laptop, phone and hard drives.
The police did a thorough job, targeting the entire management team, former employees and trainees, as well as historian Sohail Hashmi, who only took part in two programs, and comedian Sanjay Rajoura, who wrote a video show for the site. Teesta Setalvad was also among those targeted; this activist is known for her legal action on behalf of the victims of anti-Muslim pogroms in Gujarat in 2002. Since then, she has been the target of police harassment for her unsuccessful attempt to establish in court the responsibility of Narendra Modi, the leader of Gujarat at the time of the massacres.
The raid on Newsclick followed a New York Times article published in August on American millionaire Neville Roy Singham, suspected of working closely with the Chinese government by supporting its propaganda worldwide. The American newspaper claimed that "In New Delhi, corporate filings show, Mr. Singham's network financed a news site, NewsClick," which allegedly broadcast a pro-Chinese video. Prabir Purkayastha, the founder, denied "any insinuation that [the site] functions as a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party or other interests."
This was a godsend for the authorities, who immediately launched an investigation. Founded in 2009, this media outlet is known as one of the few Indian media outlets to have resisted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's steamroller. Only a handful of independent media outlets remain. The majority of newspaper titles and TV channels are now under the control of the Hindu nationalists. The last independent TV channel, NDTV, bought out in 2022 by billionaire and Modi friend Gautam Adani, has fallen into the camp of the "Godi medias," a pejorative nickname used in India to designate the servile relays of power.
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