On October 3, 2023, five hundred Delhi Police officers raided almost a hundred homes and offices of journalists and researchers across India as part of a three-year campaign to intimidate Newsclick, a news website based in New Delhi. The police officers harassed the journalists and researchers, asking them why they were covering the farmers’ movement and the government’s COVID response – stories that cannot be ignored by serious reporters of any political persuasion.
At the end of the day, the Delhi Police, who answer to India’s Ministry of Home Affairs, arrested Newsclick founder and chief editor Prabir Purkayastha and the organisation’s head of human relations Amit Chakraborty. Both remain in prison under remand. During the raid, the Delhi Police seized computers, phones, documents, and – crucially – network-attached storage (NAS) units from the Newsclick office. The NAS system contains fourteen years of coverage by Newsclick – the entire archive of its work. The Delhi Police sealed the office, making the equipment inside inaccessible to Newsclick journalists.
We are dismayed by the actions of the Delhi Police, operating on behalf of the Government of India. Through its actions, the Delhi Police has done the following:
1. Effectively shut down Newsclick by seizing its office and NAS system.
2. Chilled coverage of the important stories of the day by harassing journalists who have only done their duty to the profession.
3. Intimidated editors by arresting Prabir Purkayastha.
4. Sent a message to investors to stay away from media projects that do not toe the government’s positions.
5. We stand in full solidarity with Newsclick and all those who are being hounded by the Government of India for reporting the truth.
6. We urge the Delhi Police to immediately release Prabir Purkayastha and Amit Chakraborty.
7. We urge the Government of India to cease its harassment of journalists and media projects.
8. We urge journalists and media houses around the world to offer their full solidarity to Newsclick.
Signed,
Ahmed Kaballo (Founder and Chief Editor, Africa Stream)
Ben Becker (Editor, Breakthrough News)
Ben Chako (Editor, Morning Star)
Bhaskar Sunkara (Editor-in-Chief, Jacobin)
Bruno Sommer (Editor-in-Chief, El Ciudadano)
Jamal Ghosn (Al-Akhbar)
Jeffrey St. Clair (Editor-in-Chief, CounterPunch)
Kwesi Pratt, Jr. (Editor-in-Chief, Pan Africa TV)
Nina Fideles (Editor, Brasil de Fato)
Rosa Miriam Elizalde (Founder, Cubadebate)
Roger McKenzie (International Editor, Morning Star)
Stefan Huth (Editor-in-Chief, Junge Welt)
Vijay Prashad (Chief Correspondent, Globetrotter)
Zoe Alexandra (Editor, Peoples Dispatch)
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by CounterPunch News Service.