Assam: Citizens’ Protest, Civil Society Expresses Solidarity for NewsClick 

Guwahati: The massive crackdown on NewsClick and the arrests of Editor in Chief Prabir Purkayastha and Human Resources (HR) head Amit Chakravarty also sparked widespread discontent in Assam. Since the news of the crackdown spread on October 3, reactions poured into social media condemning the act. Some media reports also turned out critical of the police action on NewsClick, saying it is an effort to muzzle the voices of independent media. 

On October 6, Friday, a protest was held in Guwahati by concerned citizens demanding the immediate release of those arrested. On the same day, prominent journalists and editors addressed a press conference, terming the police action an effort to scuttle press freedom in the country. 

Addressing the press conference, eminent journalist and Rajya Sabha MP Ajit Kumar Bhuyan said that NewsClick is known to produce objective news highlighting the issues of common people and movements. “NewsClick has been doing this with courage at the time when press freedom has been attacked unprecedentedly in the past nine years of the Modi regime,” Bhuyan said. He furthered that NewsClick has been relentlessly exposing the Modi government, and as the general election nears, the government wants to hide their misdoings further. According to him, courageous media platforms like NewsClick are under attack. On the much-hyped allegation of China funding, Bhuyan satirically said that everything will vanish if and only if NewsClick starts praising the Modi government from tomorrow in the line of the ‘Godi Media’.

He also mentioned that those journalists associated with NewsClick and questioned by the police were asked about the Farmers’ movement, anti-CAA protests and COVID-19 reporting. “Is not this a clear indication of what they want?” he said, highlighting further that there has been Chinese funding to PM CARES as well, and then there should also be an inquiry. “There is nothing but to threaten the independent and critical media across the country before the 2024 election. But this is not going to be successful,” Bhuyan said. 

Addressing the press, prominent journalists and editors questioned the police crackdown on NewsClick; Guwahati, October 6. 

The press was also addressed by Haider Hussain, an octogenarian and an eminent journalist of Assam. Mr Hussain appealed to stand against the government and police atrocities meted out to Newsclick and independent media in the country. He termed the police action on Newsclick as a wake-up call for everyone who believes in the democratic values enshrined in the Constitution. 

Paresh Malakar, secretary of Axom Nagarik Samaj and the editor-in-chief of Northeast Now, a Guwahati-based media platform addressing the press, termed the police action unethical. He asked, “Can a story published in the New York Times be considered evidence against NewsClick? The ED raided the media house back in 2021, and yet they are not been able to prove anything, why?” Mr Malakar termed the latest arrests and raids as a way of muzzling critical voices in the country.

Axom Nagarik Samaj, expressing its solidarity with NewsClick, wrote in its statement, “On behalf of Axom Nagarik Samaj and Bharat Jodo Abhiyaan, Assam, we condemn the police highhandedness meted out to the digital platform NewsClick and fully sympathise with the news platform. We demand that Sri Prabir Purkayastha, the founder editor and Amit Chakraborty, the Administrative Officer of the news platform, be released immediately. A number of media personalities and academics directly and indirectly associated with the media platform were harassed, and their homes were raided the other day without following due process of law only because some time back ‘The New York Times’ wrote an article accusing the media platform of receiving some funds from foreign sources for ulterior motives.

Raiding homes and seizing electronic devices from the media people on the basis of a newspaper article is most unheard of. This is a clear case of vendetta against the Newsclick for their independent and bold reporting. The same New York Times and other international newspapers wrote copiously about money laundering by the Adani group after the release of a report by Hindenburg Research. But nothing happened to Adani. What did the police and the government do then?  Why did they look on the other side? Why is this blatant partiality?”

On the other hand, a protest demonstration organised by concerned citizens was held at Guwahati Club Rotary. People from several organisations, including the Students Federation of India (SFI) Kisan Sabha, took part in the protest demo. 

Protest demo in Guwahati against the police action on Newsclick.

Despite severe rain and many portions of the city submerged with roads waterlogged, people arrived at the demonstration “to express their solidarity with Newsclick and oppose the government’s attempts to silence critical voices,” told Nirangkush Nath of Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI). The protest demo ended in a meeting with a resolution to intensify the resistance against the police action and the government’s autocratic behaviours.