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Authorities in India’s capital metropolis of New Delhi on Monday arrested Muslim journalist Mohammed Zubair for a 2018 tweet that allegedly harm non secular sentiments and promoted enmity.
Zubair, who’s the co-founder of fact-checking web site Alt Information, has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authorities.
He additionally routinely calls out hate speech by Hindu fringe teams on the web and writes concerning the marginalization of India’s Muslim minority.
Alt Information co-founder Pratik Sinha stated Zubair was arrested illegally and was being held by Delhi Police.
Whereas the police sought to maintain him in custody for seven days, judicial authorities allowed solely in the future in custody, directing them to supply Zubair in entrance of a Justice of the Peace in a while Tuesday.
Indian media reported that Zubair was arrested after a Twitter consumer filed a criticism towards the fact-checker.
Zubair is accused of violating the nation’s legislation on non secular concord in a tweet he wrote in 2018 regarding the renaming of a resort after the Hindu god Hanuman.
Supporters demand quick launch
His arrest has been condemned by supporters as a politically motivated try to silence a authorities critic and harass him as a consequence of his journalism.
Journalist Rana Ayyub, who can also be Muslim and is a frequent goal by the Hindu proper wing, condemned his arrest in a publish on Twitter.
“Journalist Zubair who routinely busted pretend information, uncovered the hate equipment in India has simply been arrested.”
“The nation is punishing those that reported, documented the decline,” she wrote on Twitter.
DIGIPUB, a consortium of digital information media organizations in India, stated it was “unjustifiable” to make use of “stringent legal guidelines” to go after journalists.
“It’s unjustifiable that such stringent legal guidelines are getting used as instruments towards journalists, who’ve been accorded the position of enjoying watchdog towards the misuse of the establishments of the state.”
Opposition chief Rahul Gandhi additionally tweeted, “Each individual exposing BJP’s hate, bigotry and lies is a menace to them. Arresting one voice of reality will solely give rise to a thousand extra.”
Widening crackdown on press freedom
Critics of Modi’s authorities say Zubair’s arrest is part of a bigger crackdown on free speech and rights activists in India since Modi got here to energy in Might 2014.
India’s press freedom rating fell from 142 in 2021 to 150 this yr, in response to world media watchdog Reporters With out Borders, which revealed its 2022 World Press Freedom Index final month.
“The violence towards journalists, the politically partisan media and the focus of media possession all exhibit that press freedom is in disaster on the planet’s largest democracy, dominated since 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the chief of the Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) and the embodiment of the Hindu nationalist proper,” the report stated.
see/rs (Reuters, AFP)
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