NEW DELHI (AP) – When Vinod K. Jose, executive editor of The Caravan, India’s leading investigative magazine, connected to Twitter on Monday, he was shocked to find the magazine’s account blocked.
Jose was already handling a case of sedition and other charges against him, magazine owners and a freelance journalist. At the heart of the allegations is the magazine’s coverage of ongoing farmers’ protests in India for more than two months.
As farmers camp on the outskirts of the capital, protesting against new agricultural laws, say they will destroy their earnings, the mainstream and social media have been attacked unprecedentedly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. Critics say he used the massive demonstrations to intensify the crackdown on free speech, detaining journalists and freezing Twitter accounts.
“This is a very worrying development for the press,” said Apar Gupta, executive director of the Internet Freedom Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group.
Jose shared a screenshot of the blocked account from his personal hand. The scandal soon followed. Activists, journalists and media watchdogs rushed to condemn Twitter, which said it had acted on a “valid legal request” issued by an Indian authority.
Hundreds of Indian Twitter accounts, including those on news sites, activists and a farmers’ union, were suspended on Monday. Some, including The Caravan’s, have since been restored.
Offline, at least nine journalists have been accused in recent weeks of covering the protests.
The trigger for the reduction was the death of a protester, Navneet Singh, when the largely peaceful rallies became violent on January 26 after a group of farmers veered off an agreed protest route and stormed the 17th-century Red Fort. from New Delhi. Hundreds of police and farmers were injured in the clashes.
Farmers’ leaders condemned the violence, but refused to cancel the protest.
Authorities say no shots were fired and Singh died because his tractor overturned. His family claimed he was shot dead. Their account was published by several outlets, including Caravan.
Modi government ministers have accused journalists and a prominent opposition MP of inciting hatred and endangering the nation’s integrity through inaccurate reports and tweets. This led to charges of sedition from the colonial era, which have a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
The law, like its equivalent in other former British colonies, is considered draconian and was repealed in the United Kingdom in 2010.
Prosecutions for sedition charges are rare, but their use to silence journalists, critics and dissidents in India is not new, and previous governments have resorted to it. But official data shows that the Modi government has used the law more than any other – up nearly 30%. It has also repeatedly rejected requests for repeal.
Calls and messages requesting comments from four BJP spokesmen went unanswered. Calls to the party’s media office were also unsuccessful.
Media watchdogs and rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, have condemned the government’s actions as censorship. The Editors Guild of India said the cases against journalists were “an attempt to intimidate, harass, beat up and stifle the media”.
Daniel Bastard, head of the Asia-Pacific Bureau of Reporters Without Borders, said the government was trying to impose its own narrative.
Critics say India under Modi is becoming intolerant. Its ranking in the World Press Freedom Index has fallen every year to 142 out of 180 places in 2020.
Reporters Without Borders noted “police violence against journalists” and increased “pressure on the media to follow the line of the Hindu nationalist government” as a major reason for the demotion.
But similarly, Twitter’s reaction to the suspension of the accounts “set a terrible precedent” for freedom of expression and the press, Jose said.
“We like Twitter to remain neutral, as opposed to being vulnerable to power pressures,” he said.
India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, in a notification to Twitter on Monday, said it had instructed the company to take accounts that used incendiary hashtags during the January 26 violence. But Jose said Caravan never used such hashtags and that Twitter did not notify the magazine before suspending its account.
The ministry did not respond to calls and emails, but issued another statement on Wednesday, accusing Twitter of “unilaterally restoring” the accounts “despite orders to retain them.”
He said the platform had to follow the authorities’ instructions and could be prosecuted “for disobeying government orders”.
Twitter declined to comment.
Gupta of the Internet Freedom Foundation said the IT law invoked by the government to freeze Twitter accounts gives it the power to direct online intermediaries and internet service providers to block certain content without providing any explanation.
“In the past, governments have blocked individual journalistic accounts, but blocking an account of an entire publication is a level of escalation,” Gupta said.
The government’s response to farmers’ protests has crossed India’s borders.
On Wednesday, India’s foreign ministry condemned “invested interest groups trying to implement their agenda” after pop star Rihanna and teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg posted on Twitter in support of the protests.
The animators in India were not spared either.
On January 1, Muslim comedian Munawar Faruqui was arrested for insulting Hindu sentiments while taking place in Indore, a city in the state of Madhya Pradesh led by the Modi party.
In India, intentional injury to religious sentiments is a crime. But Faruqui was arrested on remand before his performance even began.
“Before he could even make a joke, before he could really start the show, the police came and shot him,” said Anshuman Shrivastava, Faruqui’s lawyer.
The show was canceled, and police have since admitted that they have no evidence against the comedian. He was granted bail by the Supreme Court on Friday, after three lower courts refused to do so.
The Associated Press contacted five prominent comedians who did not want to speak, but said they were increasingly scared to make jokes against the Hindu government and religion.
“What we are witnessing now is a flagrant violation of free speech in India, which the government has legitimized in full public view,” said Sanjay Rajoura, a prominent Indian satirist. “The government came after the Muslims first because they are an easily visible minority. But now he comes after anyone with an informed, intelligent expression. ”
The anger of Hindu nationalist groups aligned with Modi’s party has also caught streaming platforms on guard. Many of their shows faced boycott calls and legal cases. Recently, the Supreme Court issued a notification to Amazon Prime about its “Mirzapur” show, after a petition claimed that it affects cultural feelings.
Such incidents did not inspire much faith in the courts, said Jose Caravanei. He and the owners are still fighting criminal charges.
“I hope the courts see that the world is looking at how the largest democracy in the judiciary defends personal freedoms,” Jose said.