On October 3, 2022, the 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Switzerland, became a launch platform for an international campaign for the safety of journalists. The campaign, led by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), called for a UN convention to improve the safety and independence of journalists. It is backed by several journalists, media unions, and NGOs across the globe.
The need for a UN convention, namely the International Convention on the Safety and Independence of Journalists and Other Media Professionals, emerged after increased impunity, threat, and prosecution against journalists by several countries. “It highlights existing weaknesses and loopholes in international humanitarian and human rights law and the lack of effective enforcement mechanisms,” IFJ states on its website.
India, a growing power in world politics, is not a country known for freedom of the press, especially in recent times. In fact, the country slipped eight places in the World Press Freedom Index in 2022. It now stands at 150 out of 180 countries ranked by the global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
“The violence against journalists, the politically partisan media, and the concentration of media ownership, all demonstrate that press freedom is in crisis in ‘the world’s largest democracy’, ruled since 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the embodiment of the Hindu nationalist right,” the agency states in its analysis.
The State-led threat to journalists for merely doing their jobs is particularly acute in the case of women journalists. On the one hand, they are targeted by the State for not toeing the establishment’s line, while on the other hand, they are subjected to vicious online harassment solely because they dare to be visible in public.
An example of how the State’s persecution of women journalists can drag on for many years, causing harm to their physical, mental, and professional well-being is KK Shahina’s story. Eleven years ago, the government of Karnataka led by the BJP, slapped the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) on Shahina KK. Then a journalist working at Tehelka, she had interviewed two witnesses in the 2008-Bengaluru bomb blast case and had reported lapses in the police investigations. Apart from the draconian UAPA under which getting a bail is extremely difficult, the state also booked Shahina under two sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for criminal intimidation. This could lead up to seven years of imprisonment. News and human rights organisations across the world came out in Shahina’s support. However, her fight for justice is far from over. Her case is pending at the Supreme Court of India, 11 years after she was booked.
Shahina KK. Facebook
Meanwhile, a lot has changed in her life. She gained and lost friends, missed out on several work opportunities abroad, and let go of domestic journalistic assignments of similar nature. “There are positive and negative impacts of this case on my life,” she says over a video interview. “I received tremendous support from many fellow journalists across the country. My network widened after this case,” she says.
However, the cost was higher. She had to re-wire herself in self-preservation over the past years. Apart from refusing to take on similar assignments, she also had to self-censor to merely protect her loved ones. “After this case, I came across many stories that would shake the State, but I kept away. I didn’t take them on because of this reason. I limited myself,” she explains. While the court did not direct her to surrender her passport, she stayed away from renewing it fearing the bureaucratic paperwork involved in the process. This led to her losing out on opportunities abroad.
When asked whether she received any support from the Kerala government as a resident of the state, she says, “I received a lot of support from the government and also from the ruling party.” Kerala was governed by the Left (CPI(M)) at that time. “CPI(M is essentially against the BJP and they claim they are against the implementation of such draconian laws, so I got their support,” she says. Kerala’s CPI(M) government hasn't, however, shied away from exploiting the UAPA to serve their interests on other occasions.
Shahina is not alone in facing the wrath of the State for carrying out her duties as a journalist. Over the years, women journalists like Neha Dixit, Poonam Agarwal, Rachna Khaira, and Shrishti Jatav have all faced harassment and intimidation and cases have dragged on, obliterating parts of their lives.
In 2016, journalist Neha Dixit published a five-part investigative report in Outlook Magazine about the alleged trafficking of 31 young girls from Assam. The girls, Neha reported, were being illegally taken from Assam to other states by the Sangh Parivar. Immediately after the reports came out, the ideological parent of the ruling BJP, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), issued statements against Neha. BJP associates also filed cases against her for defamation and inciting communal disharmony. Neha is still fighting these cases in courts in Assam.
As recently as 2021, attempts were made to harass and intimidate Neha. She tweeted about multiple incidents of stalking since September 2020 and an attempt to break into her house in January 2021. The attempted break-in prompted her to lodge an official complaint with the police.
Poonam Agarwal’s story is one of victory against the State’s power. In 2017, Poonam had produced a video documentary exposing the ‘Sahayak system’ in the Indian Army, a long-standing tradition in the armed forces wherein senior officers used junior officers to do menial tasks for them. The Government of India had issued a circular in January 2017 ordering the armed forces to not misuse the system. However, Poonam’s sting from an army camp near Nasik, Maharashtra, showed that the system was still alive despite the order. Her exposé that aired on The Quint on February 24, 2017, had conversations by several army jawans who detailed the exploitation by senior officers.
Poonam Agarwal. Twitter
After the video went live, one of the soldiers who was featured in the video (though his identity was blurred) was found dead in the barracks, allegedly by suicide. The Nasik police then registered an FIR against Poonam and Naik Deepchand Kashmir Singh (a Kargil war veteran) in March 2017 on the basis of a complaint filed by the Indian Army. Deepchand used to run a canteen at the army camp, where Poonam exposed the Sahayak system. The allegation against Deepchand was that he helped Poonam enter the army camp to conduct her sting. The police charged her under sections of the Official Secrets Act (OSA) (for criminal trespass) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) (for abetment of suicide of the soldier). Since OSA was slapped on both, it made it difficult for them to get bail as the law implied that the accused were ‘anti-nationals’ working against the country.
In April 2017, her application for anticipatory bail in the sessions court in Nasik was rejected. She then approached the Bombay High Court which granted her plea. The FIR against her was quashed by the Bombay High Court two years later on April 18, 2019, stating that she was “wrongly implicated” in the case. The judges viewed the said video and the unedited raw footage and concluded that no offence was committed by Poonam and Deepchand. They also categorically stated that the video was not a threat to the nation’s security and that there was no direct connection between the said video and the soldier’s death.
In some cases, like the one involving Rachna Khaira, a journalist with The Tribune, the police have had to accept in court that there was no basis for further investigation. On January 3, 2018, Rachna blew the whistle on a breach in data of the unique identity number Aadhaar. Demographic data of millions of cardholders was reportedly being sold to private parties. The newspaper reported that it had received an offer from a seller who was ready to give them the login credentials to access Aadhaar data pertaining to millions of Indians. The series, published in The Tribune in 2018, led to several public interest litigation cases being filed against the Aadhaar programme, which eventually led to the revision of some of its problematic aspects.
Two days after the story broke, the Delhi Police booked Rachna, her editor, and the newspaper for cheating and forgery. The FIR, registered in January 2018, was closed by the Delhi Police in April 2021 citing lack of evidence. The details about the closure of the FIR came to light after the Delhi police filed a report in a Delhi court.
More recently, Dalit Times’ Shrishti Jatav’s arrest put the spotlight on the unchecked power of the police in attempting to intimidate a journalist. The Delhi police arrested Shrishti on August 25, 2021 for allegedly covering the demolition of the Dhobi Ghat slum area in the city despite a court order against demolition. The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) proceeded to demolish the slum amidst protests by the residents of the area. Shrishti and her cameraperson had reached the spot to cover the demolition drive when the police took them into custody. Though they were released in three hours, they stated that the police went on to confiscate their phones and delete the footage.
On the other side of the coin are women journalists having to face the worst harassment online for doing their jobs or simply even daring to express their opinions in public. A 2021 research paper published by UNESCO titled “The Chilling: global trends in online violence against women journalists” found that 73% respondents had experienced online violence and an alarming 20% said they had been attacked or abused offline in connection with online violence they had experienced.
Prominent broadcast journalist Sugitha Sarangaraj has been at the receiving end of the vitriol spewed on social media several times. It all began in 2018 when Sugitha anchored a show on the channel News7 Tamil with spokespersons from across political parties. In the show, she referred to Tamil Nadu’s five-time Chief Minister M Karunanidhi by his name, instead of calling him ‘Kalaignar’ (artist) as he is popularly known.
Sugitha Sarangraj (left) at News 7 Tamil. Screengrab/News 7 Tamil
“It started with them (online trolls) questioning how I can refer to an elderly, senior politician by his name,” she recollects. “I was being relentlessly trolled by DMK cadres and IT wing guys, which ran to thousands of tweets and retweets.” It was only after Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief and current Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin intervened and tweeted against it that the trolling finally stopped. After Stalin condemned the online abuse, several IT wing leaders and politicians also took to Twitter to express their solidarity with Sugitha.
If trolling doesn’t completely demoralise a woman journalist, the mere procedure involved in filing a cyber-crime complaint and getting the police to act on it will. It took Sugitha weeks to figure out the right police station to file her complaint on another instance of online harassment recently. When she finally did manage to find a station, she was told that the jurisdiction was different and that she had come to the wrong place.
“If I, as a journalist with decent connections, find it cumbersome to file a complaint, I cannot imagine what it would be like for a woman who isn’t as privileged,” she points out. Sugitha adds that this constant online abuse and intimidation has a far-reaching impact in the lives of journalists, especially if they are women. “This relentless, nasty cyber-trolling has prevented many women journalists from even thinking of making public appearances,” she says.
More recently, journalist Anna Vetticad tweeted about the sexual abuse she faced from a stranger on Facebook. She said that the stranger had sent her sexually explicit videos. Despite her reporting the videos to Facebook immediately, the platform did not take it down even after two weeks. She then went on to document her sour experience masking the private information of the sender and shared it with the clips on her Facebook wall. However, she tweeted that Facebook promptly took down her post, stating that her post does not adhere to their community standards on sexual activity.
Her experience prompted many on social media to wonder about the accountability of these platforms, which invariably end up making the space unsafe for women. Their guidelines are implemented in a random manner, making it difficult for women to rely on them in case of sexual harassment.
Sugitha attributes her case solely to gender. “Their (the abusers) mindset is that a woman shouldn’t question a male politician, especially a woman wearing a saree. They align the image of a saree-clad woman journalist with women in their household and expect them to be demure and subservient,” she explains. It also becomes nasty very fast when the online abusers sexualise the matter. In Sugitha’s case, soon after the trolling began, she found her and her friends’ pictures on a Facebook page with sexual content.
After the government hounded her with the UAPA, Shahina KK was stopped by an all-male mob on her way back from work one day. She pegs this move on the part of the mob to her being a woman. However, Shahina says that more than her gender, it is her religion that caused the BJP-led state government to double down. “If it was someone who belonged to another religion, say a Hindu, I don’t think this would have happened,” she says.
Targeting women based on their religion is a recurring pattern in India. In 2021, two apps — Sulli deals and Bulli bai — pooled and doctored publicly available photos of prominent Muslim women journalists and others leading a public life without their consent and listed them for “auction” and “sale”. “Bulli” and “sulli” are Islamophobic slurs used to denigrate Muslim women.
These women, many of whom were journalists, had spoken against Modi and the ruling dispensation on social media. These apps were hosted on the tech platform GitHub. The police had arrested six men for creating these apps and filed a chargesheet in March 2022, according to an answer by Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra in the Lok Sabha.
Both Sugitha and Shahina say that as women journalists, they are constantly vigilant because the risks come in more layers when compared to a male journalist. “We always have to be in ‘fight mode’ with people. We can’t relax for even a single minute. Wherever you go, whoever you mingle with, we have to be vigilant,” they say.
This reporting has been supported by the International Press Institute’s project on fighting attacks on journalists in South Asia.
Megha Kaveri (she/her) is a journalist and a postgraduate student at the Graduate Institute (IHEID), Geneva. She is specialising in issues around migration and global health in her postgraduate programme.