Climate activist gets bail
RAMANI CHEERS COLLECTIVE VICTORY AFTER FORMER MINISTER SUED HER FOR DEFAMATION
A NEW DELHI court on Tuesday (23) granted bail to 22-year-old climate activist Disha Ravi, who was arrested for sedition over the creation of an online toolkit to help protesting farmers.
Judge Dharmender Rana said there was little to hold Ravi, a founder of the local chapter of Swedish climate crusader Greta Thunberg’s movement, in custody any longer.
Her arrest at home in Bangalore earlier this month stoked criticism of repression of dissent. Police said she was involved in producing and disseminating an action plan that sparked violence during farmers’ protests in Delhi. Her lawyers said the arrest was illegal and there was nothing seditious in the toolkit.
“Considering the scanty and sketchy evidence on record, I do not find any palpable reason for keeping a 22-year-old in custody,” Rana said.
He ordered the granting of bail to Ravi subject to furnishing two sureties of `100,000 (£979) each.
Meanwhile, more than 100,000 farmers and farm workers gathered in Punjab last Sunday (21) in a show of strength against new farm laws, where union leaders called on supporters to amass outside the capital New Delhi on Saturday (27).
Union leaders outlined plans to mobilise farmers and farm workers from across the northern state and move to a protest site outside Delhi later this month.
“We came here to make Punjab’s farmers aware of the movement in Delhi. We came to tell them what’s happening there and what will happen next,” prominent farmer leader Joginder Ugrahan said.
THE threat of jail under India’s criminal defamation law has had a “chilling effect” on the country’s #MeToo movement, the lawyer who successfully defended a female journalist sued by a former government minister has warned.
MJ Akbar stepped down as a minister in 2018 after he was accused of sexual misconduct during his earlier career as a newspaper editor by a number of women, including the journalist Priya Ramani. Akbar, who denies all the allegations, filed a criminal defamation lawsuit against Ramani accusing her of having “fabricated” her story.
Last week a court in New Delhi found Ramani not guilty of the charge, which carries a sentence of up to two years in jail. “A criminal defamation case is a convenient tool, where a woman has to face criminal charges in court and the possibility of jail time,” her lawyer Rebecca John told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“And this sort of intimidation of course has a chilling effect on others and prevents women from speaking up. In effect, it silenced other women.”
Akbar, a veteran editor who founded many publications, was one of the highest profile figures to be accused of sexual misconduct in India.
His lawyer Geeta Luthra last Friday (19) defended his decision to sue Ramani under criminal rather than civil law and said he would likely appeal the verdict. “Where does a man maligned on social media go for justice?” said Luthra. “Unlike in the United States, there are enormous delays in civil suits and the damages given are just a token amount.”
In 2017, Ramani wrote a story for Vogue magazine about the inappropriate behaviour of an unnamed editor more than two decades ago.
A year later, fuelled by the rage of other women who had been sharing their stories on social media amid the global #MeToo movement against sexual harassment, she tweeted a link to the story – and named Akbar.
Ramani’s tweet sparked a flurry of allegations by at least a dozen other women about Akbar, and a few days later, he resigned as junior foreign minister, becoming the highest-profile scalp for the #MeToo movement in India at the time.
Last Wednesday (17), Ramani stood in court with her friends as additional chief metropolitan magistrate Ravindra Kumar Pandey handed down his 90-page judgment dismissing Akbar’s claim. “The time has come for our society to understand the sexual abuse and sexual harassment and its implications on victims,” he added.
“I feel proud for all the women who spoke up during #MeToo. It’s our victory,” Ramani said.
The #MeToo movement is not going anywhere, she added, saying that she was ready if Akbar appeals the verdict to a higher court, which could lead to another legal battle.
“Women have started speaking up, and it’s addictive... I would tell young women to speak up to share their stories (and) to not feel scared... We’re all with you.”
Some human rights advocates argue that making defamation a criminal offence violates the right to free speech.
In Pakistan, criminal defamation laws have also been used against women making accusations of sexual misconduct.
One high-profile case currently going through the courts involves the actress and singer Meesha Shafi, who in 2018 used Twitter to accuse musician Ali Zafar of sexually harassing her, a charge he denies. She and eight others have been charged by the Federal Investigation Agency under Pakistan’s cyber crime law with defaming Zafar online.
Shafi’s lawyer, Nighat Dad, welcomed the Delhi court’s verdict, saying it had “opened up ways to keep the women who dare to speak out against harassment, safe and secure”.
“I think a good precedent has been set by the trial court of Delhi. Given that Pakistan and India have common context and cultural sensitivities,” she said, calling for Pakistan’s parliament to scrap laws that criminalise libel.
The judge in the Ramani case, magistrate Ravindra Kumar Pandey, said women must be free to complain about sexual misconduct without fear that they themselves could be prosecuted.
“The woman cannot be punished for raising voice against the sex abuse on the pretext of criminal complaint of defamation as the right of reputation cannot be protected at the cost of the right of life and dignity of woman,” he wrote in his judgment.
Activists say more needs to be done to encourage women to come forward.