It points out that even the Supreme Court of India had to step in on 9 February to provide interim protection from arrest to journalists Zafar Agha, Vinod Jose, Ananth Nath, Paresh Nath, Mrinal Pande, and Rajdeep Sardesai, after FIRs were filed against them in multiple states.
Further, the international organisations express concern over estimates of at least 50 journalists at local, regional and national level having been subjected to ‘legal jeopardy’ since 2020. They point out that the journalists have had to endure the same ‘as a result of their reporting, with an even higher number facing criminal action under other pretexts’.
“We are deeply concerned that such persistent recourse to legal action suggests a systematic and barely disguised attempt to criminalise professional journalism, a claim evidenced by the growing pattern of legal cases, personal threats and intimidation against independent news media organisations, individual editors, journalists, and…