'Shocking': Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa on Arrest of Teesta Setalvad, Mohammed Zubair

Honolulu: Maria Ressa, the Nobel Prize winning journalist from the Philippines, has described the arrest in India of human rights activist Teesta Setalvad and fact-checking journalist Mohammed Zubair as "shocking".

In a 10-minute interview to The Wire on the sidelines of a media conference at the East-West Center in Hawaii, Ressa said all journalists should come together to oppose what has happened. "I think...Indian journalists, and you should get...everyone should be talking about it, everyone should be writing about this."

Here is an excerpt of the relevant exchange:

Arfa Khanum Sherwani: There are two very important people in India, one is Teesta Setalvad, a very well known human rights activist who worked with the survivors of the 2002 Gujarat riots...

Maria Ressa: Yeah, I saw this...

AKS: ...when Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat. And second is a leading fact checker...

Ressa: I saw...

AKS: ...They're both in jail right now. What do you have to say?

Ressa: Shocking. I think...Indian journalists, and you should get...everyone should be talking about it, everyone should be writing about this. You know, these things...I'll say from experience...when I got arrested, the journalists...people don't want to jump in the fray. You see? Partly because of self interest. But how do you get everyone together? You talk to everyone. You pull the people together. That's where the activists are better than journalists. We're kind of bad at this...(laughs). 'Cause we think the story should tell the story, right? But it's shocking and it should get more headlines.

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