Indian journalists arrested in government crackdown
A number of Indian journalists have been arrested in raids across the country.
Indian authorities arrested a number of senior journalists and administrators from NewsClick, an independent news and opinion site, which has been critical of the Indian government. Authorities said that the site was illegally receiving money from the Chinese government, with the arrests being made under the auspices of an anti-terror law.
A number of prominent Indians condemned the arrests or took part in protests over the incident this week.
Arundhati Roy, a Booker Prize winner, attended a protest at a press club in the capital, Delhi, and said: ‘They have confiscated the phones, the computers, they have charged them under this anti-terrorism act, collapsing the difference between terrorists and journalists. What they are doing here is ratcheting up their power before the coming elections in a very, very brazen way.’
Prominent Indian historian Ramachandra Guha was quoted by the BBC, calling the raids ‘brutal, vicious, and draconian’.
In recent years the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been accused of becoming more authoritarian, and cracking down on dissent and religious minorities, particularly Muslims.