New Delhi: “Journalism cannot be prosecuted as ‘terrorism’,” 16 media organisations said in a letter to Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud Wednesday, urging him to “take cognisance and intervene before it is too late”.
The letter, seen by ThePrint, comes in the wake of the raids at the houses of several journalists and other professionals employed at or associated with news portal NewsClick, leading to seizure of their mobile phones and laptops. It urges the judiciary to step in and formulate guidelines “to discourage the seizure of journalists’ phones and laptops on a whim, as has been the case”. It demands guidelines for interrogation of journalists, and for seizures from them “to ensure that these are not undertaken as fishing expeditions with no bearing to an actual offence”.
Lastly, the letter also demands that the court should consider “finding ways to ensure the accountability of State agencies and individual officers who are found overstepping the law or willfully misleading courts with vague and open-ended investigations against journalists for their journalistic work.”
The letter has been signed by Digipub News India Foundation, Indian Women’s Press Corps, Press Club of India New Delhi, Foundation for Media Professionals, Network of Women in Media (India), Chandigarh Press Club, National Alliance of Journalists, Delhi Union of Journalists, Kerala Union of Working Journalists, Brihanmumbai Union of Journalists, Free Speech Collective Mumbai, Mumbai Press Club, Arunachal Pradesh Union of Working Journalists, Press Association, Guwahati Press Club, and Indian Journalists’ Union.
“It is, therefore, our collective view that the higher judiciary must now intervene to put an end to the increasingly repressive use of investigating agencies against the media,” the letter asserts.
It notes that on 3 October, the Special Cell of the Delhi police raided the homes of 46 journalists, editors, writers, and professionals, “seemingly connected in one way or another to the online news portal, NewsClick”.
NewsClick editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha and human resources head Amit Chakravarty were then arrested by the Delhi Police in connection with a fresh case lodged Tuesday under stringent sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against the news portal.
The letter calls the invocation of the UAPA “especially chilling”, asserting, “journalism cannot be prosecuted as ‘terrorism’. Enough instances in history abound to tell us where that eventually goes.”
It also refers to the case of Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, who was granted bail only after being in jail for over two years, as well as the death of Father Stan Swamy, while he was in custody in a UAPA case — to highlight the fact that journalists arrested under the UAPA can end up spending a significant amount of time in jail, before they are granted bail.
‘Intervene before it’s too late’
The letter also points out that apart from the arrests, the raids also led to “the seizure of mobile phones and computers without ensuring the integrity of their data — a basic protocol that is essential to due process”.
While demanding norms to discourage the seizure of journalists’ phones and laptops on a whim, it explains, “Laptops and phones are no longer just official tools used to conduct official business…These devices are integrated into our entire lives and have vital personal information contained in them — from communication to photographs to conversations with family and friends.
“There is no reason or justification that investigating agencies should have access to such material,” it adds.
The letter also highlights the importance of stating the grounds of arrest as a precondition to questioning. “In its absence, as we have seen in the NewsClick case, vague assertions about the investigation of some unspecified offence have become the grounds for questioning journalists about their coverage of, inter alia, the farmers’ movement, the government’s handling of the Covid pandemic and the protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act,” it says.
Intimidation of the media, it asserts, “affects the democratic fabric of society”.
The letter reminded the CJI that he has often spoken about the duty of the press to speak truth to power and present citizens with hard facts, enabling them to make choices that propel democracy in the right direction. It quoted the CJI as saying that India’s freedoms will be safe as long as journalists can play this role “without being chilled by a threat of reprisal”.
However, the letter adds that “subjecting journalists to a concentrated criminal process because the government disapproves of their coverage of national and international affairs is an attempt to chill the press by threat of reprisal — the very ingredient you identified as a threat to freedom”.
It says the developments of the past 24 hours have left it with no option but to “appeal to your good conscience to take cognisance and intervene before it is too late and an autocratic police state becomes the norm.”
The letter ends with the assurance that as journalists and news professionals, “we are always ready and willing to cooperate with any bona fide investigation”.
“However, ad hoc, sweeping seizures and interrogations surely cannot be considered acceptable in any democratic country, let alone one that has begun advertising itself as the ‘mother of democracy’,” it adds.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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