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Delhi police on Tuesday searched the homes and confiscated the phones and laptops of journalists and contributors to NewsClick, a left-wing, anti-government news channel in India, amid a growing crackdown on the media under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Indian authorities have accused NewsClick of financial impropriety for years and in recent weeks tightened their scrutiny of the organization, alleging it received funds from China, a geopolitical rival. Indian media reported that New Delhi police, citing a tough anti-terrorism law, targeted NewsClick journalists in simultaneous raids early Tuesday morning at more than 30 locations across India.
NewsClick has always denied allegations of financial misconduct. Her supporters have criticized that the continued government scrutiny she has faced was at least partly due to a desire to suppress a critical voice. Investigators not only questioned NewsClick journalists on Tuesday, but cast their net even wider, targeting a long list of former employees, freelancers and even friends of the publication’s employees.
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As of Tuesday afternoon, it was not clear how many people associated with NewsClick had been affected – many had given up their electronic devices and were living incommunicado – but the number was widely believed to be at least a dozen.
“The investigation into specific offenses must not create a general atmosphere of intimidation in the shadow of draconian laws or impede freedom of expression and the elevation of dissenting and critical voices,” the Editors Guild of India said in a statement.
Delhi Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Founded in 2009, the news organization highlights stories about social injustice and discontent with government. Much of the content consists of video commentary broadcast on YouTube and other social media platforms in English and Hindi.
Tuesday’s raids are just the latest action against journalists in India, where press freedom is dramatically restricted. In 2023, the country was ranked 161st out of 180 in the World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders.
Independent media companies in India are battling censorship, harassment, arrests and economic pressure to do their work. Indian authorities have increasingly alleged financial impropriety in conducting raids on media outlets critical of the government. International news organizations were also covered.
In February, authorities searched and seized phones of BBC journalists over alleged tax evasion, weeks after the organization aired a documentary criticizing Modi’s handling of the 2002 riots in his home state of Gujarat. The country’s leading Hindi newspaper, Dainik Bhaskar, was raided by tax authorities in 2021 after a series of critical reports questioned the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and pointed to bodies floating in the Ganges River.
Several prominent Indian journalists were among those arrested for questioning on Tuesday. NewsClick editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha was taken away from his office by police officers, a social media video showed.
Some described having their electronic devices confiscated.
“The Delhi Police landed at my house. I took away my laptop and phone…,” Abhisar Sharma, another well-known journalist who has hosted video shows on NewsClick, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“Finally [the] Last tweet from this phone. Delhi Police [has seized] my phone,” Bhasha Singh, another reporter who has written for NewsClick, said in a tweet.
Other victims of the raid include satirist Sanjay Rajoura. Police arrived at Rajoura’s home between 6:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. and took him in for questioning shortly after, his lawyer Ilin Saraswat told The Washington Post.
Rajoura’s iPhone, laptop, several DVDs and some documents were seized by police, Saraswat said, adding that he was being questioned about his previous work with NewsClick. According to his lawyer, Rajoura last worked for NewsClick almost two years ago.
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Among those raided was historian Sohail Hashmi, who has neither written nor contributed to the medium. Hashmi, in his 70s, said he recently appeared as a guest on two NewsClick shows and was friends with senior journalists at the channel.
“The idea is to terrorize the independent press and attack diverse voices that define democracy,” he said, adding that police also confiscated his electronic devices. He was reached via a family member’s phone.
NewsClick has previously faced raids by authorities and investigations into financial ties to China amid strained political ties between the two neighbors, who share a tense border.
In August, days after The New York Times published an investigation naming NewsClick as one of the recipients of funds from Neville Roy Singham, an American tech baron and Chinese Communist Party supporter based in Shanghai, Delhi police filed the filing a lawsuit against NewsClick over an anti-terrorism law, the Indian Express reported.
At the time, NewsClick issued a statement denying that it was “a mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party” and said it had always complied with Indian law.
Indian opposition parties condemned the raids, calling them an attempt to distract from several national controversies facing the ruling BJP.
The Modi government has sought to “turn the media into a mouthpiece for its partisan and ideological interests” and has cracked down on those who speak truth to power, said INDIA, a coalition of opposition parties.
As the organization’s editor answered questions from police late Tuesday, the homepage contained a few pressing national issues: details of a state caste census opposed by the central government, an article about the government’s attempt to seize Mohandas K’s nonviolent legacy. Gandhi and allegations from the opposition about opaque political financing of the ruling party.
Gupta reported from New Delhi.