As Scroll.in's Executive Editor, Supriya Sharma, was booked by the Varanasi Police for a story she had reported to from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's adopted village in Uttar Pradesh, other journalists in the state also say that the fear of threats loom large.
A report by the Committee To Protect Journalists (CPJ) says that since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) maintained its absolute majority in Uttar Pradesh in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, instances of State action against journalists has increased.
Just like Sharma who had reported that people in a village in Varanasi, also Prime Minister Modi's constituency, were going without food during the lockdown, a Hindi-language daily from the state had reported in March that a tribe in the constituency didn't have enough to eat and were surviving by eating grass. The day the report was published, the District Magistrate sent a notice to the daily, Janasandesh Times, saying that a part of its report was "sensationalised". The DM insisted that the newspaper apologise within 24 hours, failing which legal action would be initiated against them.
Journalists told CPJ that such fears of physical assault and criminal cases lead to self-censorship.
They also say that while some threats come from the police and the State, others come from organised crime groups like river-sand mafia and a group that runs hospitals.
The BJP's overwhelming support in the May elections has emboldened the Yogi Adityanath government in the state, said Amitabh Bhattacharya, a freelance journalist to CPJ.
“It feels it can do anything with impunity, just because it has won two elections in a row,” he said.
Physical Abuse & Complacency
CPJ reports that on 11 June the railway police detained a journalist with News24 for two hours in the state's Shamli district where he was hit and kicked, and then stripped. The police even allegedly urinated in his mouth.
Even though the state government acted swiftly and the officers were suspended, the UP government and the police continue to target journalists, says the report.
"Journalists at the state or the national level can be ‘managed’ via their management or through some kind of incentive by the ruling dispensation [such as government advertising] but that’s difficult at the district or the village level,” said Lenin Raghuvanshi, founder of People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights, a local human rights group.
“That’s why the only way to stop them from doing their job honestly is by targeting them with legal cases," he said.
The journalists also said that there have been multiple instances where local authorities have turned a blind eye when journalists have been targeted by State and non-State actors.
Yogesh Mishra, senior journalist and editor of Newstrack, a news website, said that the police were going after journalists for even the smallest of matters.
“Once upon a time politicians used to bring tea and ask you for your source. Now they outrightly abuse you,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like we live in a democracy,” he said.
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