New Delhi, 12 June 2024: The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) called upon Delhi Police to drop its retaliatory investigation into three journalists of ‘The Caravan’ magazine and instead prosecute those who assaulted them while they were investigation alleged assault and harassment on a Muslim family by the local police, during the 2020 Delhi riots.
On August 11, 2020, a mob attacked the journalists in northeast Delhi while they were trying to talk to the family. For about 90 minutes, the attackers assaulted the journalists, used communal slurs, made death threats, and sexually harassed the woman journalist, until they were rescued by the police, the Caravan said.
The journalists filed complaints later that day, it said. But The Caravan has since found out that the Delhi police first lodged a First Information Report (FIR), against the journalists on August 14 based on a complaint by an unnamed woman. An hour later, on August 14, the police then registered the three journalists’ FIR, based on their complaints filed three days earlier.
“The police informed us that our FIR is being considered a ‘counter FIR’, The Caravan said, adding it had not been given a certified copy of the FIR against its staff because of its “sensitive nature.” One of the journalists was called to the police station for questioning on Friday, four years after the incident.
The Caravan said no attempt has been made to probe the case of journalists’ harassment and assault…The implications of this are straightforward. It’s an attempt to muzzle the press, facilitate harassment of journalists, and not act against attacks on the media.” .
In a statement, IJU President and former member of Press Council of India Geetartha Pathak and IJU Secretary General and Vice President of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Sabina Inderjit said the police action is an act of retaliation against journalists who were
themselves the victims of a violent mob and it must stop such dubious practice of silencing the press and dissenting voices.
