Hyderabad: Condemning the raids on journalists associated with NewsClick, the Indian Journalists Union will be holding a protest march in the city on Thursday, October 5.
The march will start at Desoddharaka Bhavan in Basheerbagh at 11 am and culminate at the Ambedkar statue near Tankbund.
Calling on the citizens to join their march, the president of the union, K Sreenivas Reddy, said, “Please join our protest march against the arbitrary arrests of several journalists at NewsClick in Delhi.”
The raid
The news portal hit the headlines for allegedly receiving money from US millionaire Neville Roy Singham for pro-China propaganda in India.
Editor-in-chief of the NewsClick, Prabir Purkayastha, and its Human Resources head, Amit Chakraborty were arrested following the raids. Citing an investigation by The New York Times, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur claimed that NewsClick’s money trail revealed an “anti-India agenda.”
Delhi Police on Tuesday searched 30 locations connected with NewsClick and its journalists. They questioned a total of 46 suspects, including nine women, for several hours in connection with a probe into the news portal’s foreign funding.
Among those questioned were journalists Urmilesh, Aunindyo Chakravarty, Abhisar Sharma, and Thakurta as well as historian Sohail Hashmi and D Raghunandan of the Centre for Technology & Development.
Police had prepared a list of 25 questions on various issues which included northeast Delhi riots, details of foreign travels, and farmers’ agitation.
Outrage sparked
Numerous journalists and media bodies described the police action against the NewsClick portal as yet another attempt to muzzle the freedom of the press.
The Press Club of India, which demanded that the government should come out with the details of the matter, held a spontaneous protest meeting against the multiple raids.
The Editors Guild of India (EGI) executive committee released a statement, expressing concern over the raids at the residences of senior journalists. “
The National Alliance of Journalists, the Delhi Union of Journalists and the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (Delhi Unit) also condemned the police raids.
The Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI) said journalists, activists and artists who speak truth to power are being ‘unrelentingly harassed and persecuted’ by the government.
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