'Unacceptable': White House on online harassment of WSJ journalist who questioned PM Modi on minorities' rights

In response to Siddiqui’s question, Prime Minister Modi had strongly defended India's record on democracy

The United States is committed to upholding freedom of the press, President Joe Biden’s administration stated, condemning the online harassment of Wall Street Journal journalist Sabrina Siddiqui after she asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi a question about the state of democracy in India last week.

Even though a week has not yet passed since Biden hosted Modi in Washington DC, the White House on Monday said that the US president never shied away from discussing with the leaders of other countries the need to protect freedom of the press and human rights.

“We’re aware of the reports of that harassment. It’s unacceptable,” John Kirby, the coordinator for strategic communications at the US National Security Council, told journalists at the White House on Monday. He was responding to a question about the targeting of Sabrina Siddiqui on social media platforms for her question to the PM Modi when he and Biden had addressed media persons after a meeting last Thursday.

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“And we absolutely condemn any harassment of journalists anywhere under any circumstances. That’s just — that’s completely unacceptable,” said Kirby. “We certainly condemn any efforts of intimidation or harassment of a journalist or any journalist that is just trying to do their job,” added the US president’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

Siddiqui was one of the two journalists who had asked questions to Biden and Modi when the two leaders had addressed media-persons after the meeting at the White House. She asked the prime minister what steps he and his government were willing to take to protect the rights of Muslims and other minorities, as well as to uphold free speech in India.

Modi, in his response said that India, being a democratic nation, had no space for discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, religion, gender or region.

Siddiqui, however, was targeted on social media by some of the users living in or linked to India.

A Twitter user pointed out that she had been born to a Pakistani-Indian father and a Pakistani mother and called her a “Pakistani Islamist”. Another referred to an old tweet by the journalist praying for peace for Pakistan on the occasion of the Independence Day of the country and apparently suggested that it was due to her allegiance to the arch-rival of India that she had asked the prime minister a question on the protection of the rights of minority community in India. She responded by posting a picture of her in the jersey of the cricket team of India. She also posted another picture of her joining her father celebrating the victory of India in the 2011 ICC world cup.

“We are certainly committed to the freedom of the press, which is why we had — we held a press conference last Thursday, which is why we thought it was important for you all to be — to hear from both, not just from the president (Biden), but also from the prime minister (Modi), and for journalists to be able to ask a question,” Jean-Pierre said in response to a question from a journalist on alleged online harassment of the WSJ journalist.