New Delhi: The global journalism watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the UK-based international human rights firm Guernica 37 Chambers have urged the United States to impose sanctions on four senior Delhi Police officers, accusing them of committing serious rights violations against journalists associated with the media outlet NewsClick.
Earlier, the two organisations had made a similar demand of the European Union.
In a press release, RSF and Guernica 37 Chambers made “recommendations to the US Department of State and Department of Treasury to adopt targeted sanctions against four officials of the Delhi police’s Special Cell implicated in an unprecedented crackdown on journalists in India”.
Delhi Police had filed an FIR against NewClick under sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) after the New York Times published a report in August 2023 that claimed that the news portal was receiving money from an American tycoon who had alleged links to the Communist Party of China. Both NewsClick and its editors, as well as the American millionaire, have strongly denied the charges.
Delhi Police’s Special Cell raided 88 locations around the country and seized around 300 electronic gadgets from 80 staffers, part-time employees and freelancers associated with the news portal.
NewsClick founder and editor Prabir Purkayastha was arrested on October 3, 2023. He was released on May 15, after the Supreme Court declared his arrest to be “invalid”. The news portal’s human resources department head Amit Chakravarty, who was also arrested at the same time, was released by Delhi high court last month after he became an approver in the case.
“The actions of the Delhi Police Special Cell against NewsClick journalists represent one of the most blatant attacks on press freedom in India,” said RSF South Asia Desk’s Celia Mercier.
Pointing out that the two organisations had in March called on European States to sanction the Delhi Police officers, Mercier said that they were asking for US to impose sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act.
“We are now calling on the US, where President Biden recently pledged to take action against those responsible for obstructing press freedom. Urgent action by the United States in this case would send a strong signal to the entire international community and a warning to the Indian authorities that the repression of journalists must stop,” she said in the press communique.
Delhi Police is under direct control of the Home Ministry of the Union government.
According to the press release, NewsClick was accused of receiving illegal Chinese funding without any substantive evidence, but were in reality targeted for their investigative reporting.
“Several journalists swept up by the raids had investigated alleged fraud committed by the Adani conglomerate, whose chairman is allegedly close to current Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Other reporters appear to have been targeted for their coverage of farmers’ protests and of the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) between 2020 and 2021, both of which are sensitive political issues,” it said.
According to the co-founder of Guernica 37 Chambers, Toby Cadman, the Delhi Police’s Special Cell seem to be “one of the go-to bodies for the Indian government to target critics, including journalists”. None of the police officers involved were held to account, encouraging similar future abuses with impunity.
“The UAPA makes it easy for authorities to arrest and detain critical voices. Both the UN and multiple foreign governments have warned the UAPA is ripe for misuse by authorities,” he said.
The Magnitsky Act, approved in 2016, allows the US administration to freeze assets and impose travel bans on foreign government officials who are violators of human rights.
“The global dominance of the US dollar and the United States’ full sovereignty over its use enhance the effectiveness and deterrent power of sanctions imposed under the GloMag mechanism compared to those imposed by other countries,” said the press communique.
