New Delhi: The Press Club of India (PCI) has demanded an independent judicial inquiry into the Delhi Police's "high-handedness" against Navbharat Times journalist Poonam Pandey when she was covering a protest at Kartavya Path on Monday, July 29.

According to the statement issued by PCI, on the day when the incident took place, Pandey stopped when she came across a protest while she was on her way to her office from South Block. She began to cover the protest organised by Congress party workers, demanding women's reservation. The police there physically prevented her from filming the protest, despite she proved to them that she is a journalist by showing her identity card. Yet, she was rounded up along with the demonstrators, the PCI statement said.

"Journalism is not a crime but silencing journalists is certainly a crime against democracy. By intimidating and detaining a woman journalist from carrying out her duties and rounding her up using physical force, the security personnel have committed an act that has a chilling effect. It is no mere coincidence that this happened at a stone's throw away from the seat of power and Parliament House. The act smacks of an attitude towards a free press characteristic of the current administration," the statement added.

All India Mahila Congress, whose protest Pandey was covering, also issued a statement condemning the police's action.

India ranks 159 out of 176 countries on the press freedom index, released annually by Reporters Without Borders. It had secured 161st rank in 2023.

“With violence against journalists, highly concentrated media ownership, and political alignment, press freedom is in crisis in 'the world’s largest democracy', ruled since 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and embodiment of the Hindu nationalist right,” RSF stated while releasing the data this year.

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