Indian police arrest a news site's editor, administrator, raid homes of journalists
Police in New Delhi have arrested the editor of a news website and one of its administrators after raiding the homes of journalists working for the site, which has been critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist-led government.
NewsClick founder and editor Prabir Purkayastha and human resources chief Amit Chakravarty were arrested late Tuesday. Earlier, some journalists associated with the site were detained and had their digital devices seized during extensive raids that were part of an investigation into whether the news outlet had received funds from China. NewsClick denied any financial misconduct.
Suman Nalwa, a police spokesperson, said the arrests were made under an anti-terrorism law. The government has used the wide-ranging law to stifle dissent and to jail activists, journalists and Modi's
critics, some of whom have spent years in jail before going to trial.
Nalwa said at least 46 people were questioned during the raids and their devices, including laptops and cellphones, and documents were taken away for examination.
They included current and former employees, freelance contributors and cartoonists.
NewsClick was founded in 2009 and is seen as a rare Indian news outlet willing to criticize Modi. It
was also raided by Indian financial enforcement officials in 2021, after which a court blocked the authorities from taking any “coercive measures” against the website.
Indian authorities brought a case against the site and its journalists on Aug. 17, weeks after a New York Times report alleged that it had received funds from an American millionaire who had funded the spread of “Chinese propaganda.”
That same month, India's
junior minister for information and broadcasting, Anurag Thakur, accused NewsClick of spreading an “anti-India agenda,” citing the New York Times report, and of working with the opposition Indian National Congress party. Both NewsClick and the Congress party denied the accusations.
On Wednesday, hundreds of journalists and activists in New Delhi held protests against the raids on NewsClick and the broader crackdown on indepedent media under Modi. Some carried placards with slogans such as, “Stop attacks on media. Stop threatening media.”
“Anybody who speaks against the regime is deemed to be anti-national. This has been a long-term strategy, and these events are the latest in this,” Manini Chatterjee, a journalist who was part of one protest.
Media watchdogs such as the Committee to Protect Journalists denounced the arrests and raids.