Foreign Correspondents Club Concerned on Restriction, Repression of Journalists
The FCC notes the travel restrictions imposed on Photojournalist Sanna Mattoo and the arrest of Mohammed Zubair.
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The Foreign Correspondents Club of South Asia, on Wednesday, 6 July, expressed concern over various incidents of restrictions being imposed on journalists in India.
It also mentioned the arrest of fact-checker Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of Alt News, who “has been arrested and jailed for ‘hurting religious sentiments’ for tweeting an image four years ago.”
It further noted the recent commitment "to protect free speech, online and offline” made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G7 meeting in Germany.
A Pulitzer-winner, Mattoo was reportedly stopped by immigration authorities while trying to fly to Paris from Delhi.
After the incident, Mattoo tweeted saying, “I was scheduled to travel from Delhi to Paris today for a book launch and photography exhibition as one of 10 award winners of the Serendipity Arles grant 2020. Despite procuring a French visa, I was stopped at the immigration desk at Delhi airport.”
“I was not given any reason but told I would not be able to travel internationally,” she said.
Meanwhile, journalist Mohammad Zubair was arrested by Delhi Police on 27 June for a tweet from 2018. A day later, a Delhi Court remanded Zubair to 4 days in police custody. The arrest was at the behest of an anonymous Twitter account that made a singular post on 19 June, saying that Zubair had insulted Hindus.
The account disappeared from the website following the news of Zubair's arrest, and only re-surfaced on 30 June.
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