NEW YORK, Authorities in India\u2019s Uttar Pradesh state must immediately drop their criminal investigation into well-known three journalists \u2014 Rana Ayyub, Saba Naqvi, and Mohammed Zubair \u2014 as well as The Wire, a private news website, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Uttar Pradesh police filed a criminal complaint stating that they were opening a investigation into The Wire as well as Ms. Ayyub, a Washington Post columnist; Ms. Naqvi, a freelance journalist; and Zubair, co-founder of the fact-checking website Alt News, according to various news reports.<\/p>\n
The complaint alleges that the three journalists and the news outlet, as well as several politicians from the opposition Congress Party, shared an unverified video that could cause social unrest.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndian authorities singling out journalists, some of whom are known for critical coverage of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, for sharing and commenting on a video looks suspiciously like selective law enforcement and amounts to a serious attack on press freedom,\u201d Steven Butler, CPJ\u2019s Asia programme coordinator, in Washington, D.C., said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cUttar Pradesh police must withdraw their complaint immediately and stop harassing journalists and news outlets,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
On June 14, The Wire and many other leading news outlets reported on a widely shared video from Uttar Pradesh\u2019s Ghaziabad district, which allegedly depicted a group of Hindu men beating an elderly Muslim man, cutting off his beard, and forcing him to chant a Hindu slogan. Ms. Ayyub, Ms. Naqvi, and Zubair tweeted about the video, according to those news reports.<\/p>\n
The complaint, filed by an inspector at the Loni Border police station in Ghaziabad, accuses Ms. Ayyub, Ms. Naqvi, and Zubair of posting tweets police alleged were misleading and unverified.<\/p>\n
The complaint states that police are investigating the three journalists and The Wire for violating Sections 153 (provocation to cause a riot), 153A (promoting enmity between religious groups), 295A (insulting religious beliefs), 505 (public mischief), and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian penal code.<\/p>\n
Each of those sections carry prison penalties of up to one year for convictions, except for criminal conspiracy, which carries up to two years, according to the Indian penal code.<\/p>\n
In posts on Twitter after the criminal complaint was filed, Ms. Ayyub, Ms. Naqvi, and Zubair noted that their descriptions of the video were based on initial news reports.<\/p>\n
CPJ said it texted Uttar Pradesh Police Director-General Hitesh Awasthy for comment but did not receive any reply.<\/p>\n
Last year, Uttar Pradesh police filed opened criminal investigations into The Wire\u2019s Siddharth Vardarajan for allegedly \u201cspreading discord\u201d related to the COVID-19 lockdown, as CPJ documented at the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW YORK, Authorities in India\u2019s Uttar Pradesh state must immediately drop their criminal investigation into well-known three journalists \u2014 Rana Ayyub, Saba Naqvi, and Mohammed Zubair \u2014 as well as The Wire, a private news website, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Wednesday. On […]<\/p>\n
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