CPJ urges India to ensure freedom for 3 journalists granted bail in security cases
New Delhi, May 15, 2023—The Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday welcomed Indian court decisions to grant bail to journalists Aasif Sultan, Gautam Navlakha, and Prabir Purkayastha, who are being held under anti-terror laws, and called on the authorities to release all three men and immediately drop charges against them. “The Indian courts’ decisions to…
Indian journalists’ 2024 election concerns: political violence, trolling, device hacking
As the scorching summer peaks this year, India’s political landscape is coming to a boil. From April 19 until June 1, the world’s biggest democracy will hold the world’s biggest election, which the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been in power since 2014, is expected to win….
Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan re-arrested hours after arriving home from jail
New York, March 4, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists on Monday expressed alarm over the re-arrest of Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan two days after he was freed from more than five years of arbitrary detention and called on Indian authorities to immediately cease harassing him in retaliation for his work. On February 27, Sultan was…
CPJ calls on Biden administration to press India prime minister on media freedom during visit
New York, June 14, 2023—Ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the U.S. from June 21 to 24 and meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, the Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday issued the following statement calling on the U.S. government to urge India to end its media crackdown and release the six…
CPJ calls on EU to hold India to account for media clampdown
Brussels, July 13, 2022 – The Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday called on the European External Action Service to hold Indian authorities accountable for widespread and severe press freedom violations when they meet for the annual India-EU Human Rights Dialogue on Friday, July 15. “The dialogue should be an opportunity for the EU to…
Kashmir media at a ‘breaking point’ amid rising number of journalist detentions
Sajad Gul’s mother had prepared his favorite dishes as she anxiously awaited his return home. The Kashmiri journalist, who had been granted bail the day before, on January 15, 2022, was to be released following his arrest earlier that month in a criminal conspiracy case, according to a journalist friend who spoke on condition of…
CPJ joins call for Indian government to end attacks on the press
On World Press Freedom Day, Tuesday, May 3, the Committee to Protect Journalists joined nine other press freedom and human rights organizations in a statement calling on the government of India, led by the Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, to address the rapidly deteriorating state of press freedom throughout the country and in Indian-administered Jammu…
Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan granted bail, then re-arrested under preventative detention law
New Delhi, April 11, 2022 – Authorities in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir must immediately and unconditionally release Kashmiri journalist Aasif Sultan and cease detaining journalists for their work and subjecting them to legal harassment, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. On Sunday, April 10, authorities in Jammu and Kashmir re-arrested Sultan, a journalist with…
Jammu and Kashmir police raid homes of four journalists
New Delhi, September 8, 2021 – Police in India-administered Jammu and Kashmir should stop raiding the homes of journalists and immediately return any seized electronic devices, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Authorities in Srinagar, the main city in Jammu and Kashmir, today raided the homes of four journalists–Showkat Motta, the editor of Kashmir…