Stop coercive actions against media

Income Tax "surveys" can only be considered as part of the harassment and intimidation of independent media

A raid by any other name is still a raid, and so no one is deceived by the use of the word “survey’’ by the Income Tax (I-T) department to describe what it did at the offices of news websites NewsClick and Newslaundry last Friday. The so-called surveys lasted over 12 hours and had all the highhandedness of a raid. Newslaundry co-founder Abhinandan Sekhri has said that he was not allowed to call his lawyer or accountant during the “survey”. The phones of the company’s staff were taken by the surveyors’’. Sekhri said his personal computer and phone were also taken and data was copied from them, overruling his objection. That is a violation of privacy because phones and computers also contain a lot of personal data, as pointed out by Sekhri. Professional information like the sources of stories, reporting plans and other details could also be compromised when devices fall into wrong hands — such as the government’s.

Such actions and conduct cannot be called a “survey”, they can only be considered as part of the harassment and intimidation of independent media, as stated by the Editors’ Guild of India. Both the websites have been critical of the government and its policies and have received adverse government attention in the past. Newslaundry offices had been raided by the I-T department in June; the Enforcement Directorate had raided NewsClick offices in February. Subsequently, the Delhi High Court had given its editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha protection from coercive action. The Editors’ Guild has said that the raids were an attack on the journalists’ rights and freedom of the press and has demanded that care and sensitivity should be shown in such investigations so that their constitutional rights and freedom are not undermined.

Intimidatory and coercive actions have increasingly been used against journalists and media organisations. In July, the offices of a major Hindi daily, Dainik Bhaskar, and a TV channel, Bharat Samachar, were raided. The fact that such actions have targeted only the critics of the government makes the motive behind them clear. Criticism of the policies and functioning of the government has become a dangerous task. The right to criticise the government is a basic democratic right, guaranteed by the Constitution. Yet, many journalists have been attacked and threatened and even sedition charges have been raised against them. Their organisations have been pressured and coerced in many ways. These are attacks on the freedom of speech. India’s position in the World Press Freedom Index is very low, and the continuing attacks on the media by the government, its agencies and others will only make it worse. Coercive actions against media houses, designed to produce a chilling effect on the press, must stop at once.