By Sean Young, MA International Studies and Diplomacy
Journalism is pivotal to society and democracy as it has the power to hold the powerful accountable. But what happens when journalism itself needs to be held to account? You have fact-checkers doing that job.
Renowned Indian fact-checkers and co-founders of Alt-News, Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year. In a report by Time Magazine, the two co-founders of the fact-checking website have ‘relentlessly been battling’ misinformation in India, where the Hindu nationalist BJP party has been accused of frequently stoking discrimination and hate speech.
But it hasn’t been a bed of roses for the fact-checker. Zubair was arrested in June of this year for allegedly ‘hurting religious sentiments’ when a Twitter user retweeted a tweet he posted four years ago, tagging the Delhi Police to take action. The tweet contained Zubair commenting on a hotel changing its name from ‘Honeymoon Hotel’ to ‘Hanuman Hotel’, and the retweeter tagged the Delhi Police, condemning Zubair’s comment as a ‘direct insult of Hindus’. What followed were multiple complaints lodged against him in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. On July 20th, the Supreme court of India ordered him to be released, saying that the court found ‘no reason or justification for the deprivation of his liberty to persist any further.’
But Zubair was the lucky one; many are not as fortunate as he was.
This year’s World Press Freedom index from Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked India 150th out of 180 countries worldwide, down from 142nd the previous year. With an average of three or four journalists killed in connection with their work every year, ‘India is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for the media,’ the RSF noted further. Journalist Siddique Kappan was arrested in 2020 while travelling in Uttar Pradesh to cover the rape and murder of a Dalit woman. The Enforcement Directorate of India, an agency under the Ministry of Finance responsible for investigating economic crimes, filed a case against him and four others last year; police accused him of seeking to incite religious hatred. Only after two years was he was able to get bail.
But it’s not just journalists; media houses and independent organisations have also been targeted by the central government. Either they are harassed by the income tax department or the ED, and personal belongings and such have been seized. Last month, the income tax department conducted raids and surveys at the offices of the Indian Centre for Policy Research, the global NGO Oxfam India, and the Bengaluru-based Independent and Public-Spirited Media Foundation, also responsible for funding many independent journalism organisations in India. Both organisations have published work that is critical of the government’s policy.
“Prime-time debates are a breeding ground for news anchors to propagate hate speech and peddle fake news.”
These above-mentioned tactics have not come out of the blue. Incidents of such nature have been happening for the last few years, and one can observe quite a dangerous pattern. With much of the media in India being owned by big corporations and having government ads as a means of sponsorship, critique of the government, as one does in a democracy, is all but out of the question. Prime-time debates are a breeding ground for news anchors to propagate hate speech and peddle fake news. Journalist Anil Yadav, who worked with News Nation, quit after 10 years stating, ‘I feel ashamed calling myself a journalist. I am a servant who is working at a news channel.’ In his twitter quote, he spoke on being forced to cover the toxic Hindu-Muslim narratives and the increasingly concerning situation surrounding freedom of speech. ‘We were given clear instructions not to speak against the government. If you want to criticise some leader or their policy, then there’s Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Mayawati, and Akhilesh Yadav (all members of opposition parties in India). You can slam them all you want.’
Last year, media revealed how governments around the world used Israeli-made spyware to spy on dissidents and journalists via their phones, highlighting that more than 1,000 phone numbers in India were among nearly 50,000 selected worldwide as of interest to clients of the Israel-based NSO Group, the manufacturer of the Pegasus spyware. According to a report by The New York Times, in 2017, as part of a larger arms deal, India bought the Pegasus spyware. ‘Though the Israeli government’s oversight was meant to prevent the powerful spyware from being used in repressive ways, Pegasus has been sold to Poland, Hungary and India, despite those countries’ questionable records on human rights,’ The NYT reported.
So where are we now? We are at a point where there is an awakening that the media, the supposed fourth pillar of the most sacred and wonderful Indian democracy, is not doing its job—especially the ‘big media’. Only thanks to the work of independent media outlets and journalists is journalism hanging by a thread, rather than dead.