New Delhi: The Editors Guild of India has said it’s “deeply concerned” about the raids conducted by the Enforcement Directorate at the office of independent news organisation NewsClick and the residences of its editor-in-chief and other employees.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the Guild noted that the news portal has been reporting on the farmers’ agitation, anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protests, and “has been critical of various government policies and of a few powerful corporates houses”.
The ED conducted searches on the premises of the NewsClick office along with residences of its promoters on charges of alleged money laundering Tuesday. Raids were also conducted at Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha’s residence as well as the homes of some senior management officials.
The guild highlighted that such raids by government agencies on media houses should not be used to intimidate journalists.
“EGI is concerned that raids by government agencies are not used as coercive measures to suppress free and independent journalism,” the statement read.
It also demanded that news operations of NewsClick should not be undermined and that both journalists and stakeholders of the news portal should not be “harassed under the garb of such measures”.
Govt action against journalists
Recently, many senior journalists such as India Today anchor Rajdeep Sardesai, National Herald Group Editor-in-Chief Zafar Agha, The Caravan’s Vinod K Jose, independent journalist Mrinal Pande and others had FIRs lodged against them in multiple states such as Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Delhi for their allegedly “misleading” tweets on the violence during the farmers’ tractor rally in Delhi on 26 January.
They were booked under the sedition law as well. The Supreme Court later stayed their arrest and said no coercive action should be taken against them.
The Uttar Pradesh Police also filed an FIR against The Wire’s founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan for tweeting a report about the death of Navreet Singh, who died in the violence that erupted during the tractor rally.
Later, the name of Ismat Ara, a reporter with the news organisation, was also added to the FIR.
The two were booked under sections 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 505(2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill will between classes) of the Indian Penal Code.
Also read: Journalists killed ‘in retaliation for their work’ globally doubles this year to 21 — Report