MediaNama · সাধারণ

37 journalists detained, YouTubers turned away and over 200 takedown orders during CJP protests

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With inputs from Azdhan

Police detained at least 37 journalists while they covered the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protests demanding Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation on October 10 and 11, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Of them, 35 were in Delhi. Journalists from digital outlets and YouTube channels said police turned them away or detained them for hours because they did not carry Press Information Bureau (PIB) cards, while allowing some reporters from established outlets through.

Delhi Police’s cybercrime monitoring department also issued more than 200 takedown orders through the government’s Sahyog portal ahead of the October 10 protest, people familiar with the matter told The Economic Times. Detentions of journalists continued after the Supreme Court directed on October 11 that journalists “shall not be hindered in discharge of their professional duties in any manner whatsoever.”

This tracker focuses on journalists and media outlets. For the wider list of posts and accounts restricted during the protests, see MediaNama’s live tracker.

Were digital journalists treated differently?

BBC allowed, YouTube journalist stopped: BBC Hindi reporter Dilnawaz Pasha asked a police official why only some journalists could move freely. Police checked the BBC team’s IDs and let them through but stopped Saurabh Shukla, a former NDTV journalist who now co-runs the YouTube channel Red Mike. Shukla told Pasha that police had allowed the BBC team through because Pasha worked for the BBC. He added that the officer had said he could not recognise Shukla.
“Preferential treatment”: Journalist Smita Sharma asked police why some established media houses and PIB-accredited journalists received preferential treatment despite the Supreme Court’s order. She told Newslaundry that police were obstructing reporters at every barricade.
No national TV journalists: Journalist Smitha Nair posted on October 11 that those detained included mainstream print journalists, journalists from independent platforms and YouTubers. She added that she had not heard of a single mainstream television journalist being detained. Journalists from regional channels, including Asianet News, Reporter TV and 24 News, were detained.
YouTubers turned away: Police asked media personnel whether they were YouTubers and denied them entry while allowing traditional media personnel through, Newslaundry reported on October 10. Police did not allow influencers to leave their hotel.
PIB cards demanded: Police stopped two journalists 8 km from Jantar Mantar, said only PIB cardholders could pass, and held them at Chanakyapuri police station for four hours, according to The News Minute. Separately, a senior officer told a journalist and Anureet Watta of The Queerbeat that she had never heard of their outlet and that “anyone could get an ID card made in Khan Market.”
Selective release: A Newslaundry reporter said a detention bus held about 30 people, most of them YouTube journalists. At Adarsh Nagar police station, the station house officer released only Newslaundry’s five staff members, although about 15 media workers had been detained.

What did Delhi Police say? A senior Delhi Police officer told The Hindu that some journalists may have been detained because they were working close to protesters and did not move away during detentions. Delhi Police’s October 5 advisory accepts identity cards issued by journalists’ organisations, as well as PIB or Delhi Information and Publicity (DIP) accreditation cards.

Journalists stopped for lacking PIB cards said they carried organisation-issued IDs. Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Manjeet Sheoran said some protesters covered protests as journalists one day and joined them the next.

Police also detained reporters from established outlets, including Reuters, Business Standard and The Indian Express. The difference was most evident in whom police allowed through barricades and whom they released first.

Which journalists were detained?

CPJ compiled its list from news reports, interviews and verified social media posts. Most journalists were displaying press cards when detained.

On October 10, in Delhi:

Scroll: Ayush Tiwari and political editor Shoaib Daniyal, who was detained outside his home, 21 km from Jantar Mantar. Police pressed Daniyal to delete videos of his detention.
Newslaundry: Ashwine Kumar Singh, Astha Savyasachi, Anmol Pritam and intern Anshu, who were taken to Chhatrasal Stadium and then to Adarsh Nagar police station.
Business Standard: Anushka Bhardwaj.
Reuters: Saurabh Sharma.
Navbharat Times: Hritik Joshi and Rahul Charas.
BOOM: Jagriti Trisha.
Mo (India Today): Shivang Shukla.
Molitics: Neeraj Jha. According to The News Minute, Molitics also said its reporter Aman was detained on October 10 and 11.
The Quint: Sarthak Jaiswal, who was taken to Chanakyapuri police station.
Reporter TV: Roshni Rajan and Farza TM, who were taken to Burari and then Sarai Rohilla police stations. Police asked them whether they had attended protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens, or earlier CJP protests.
No Noise Stories: Vivek Gupta.
Alt News: Intern Agniva Ray.
KK Create: Content creator Kavya Karnatac and her crew, who were detained while travelling to Jantar Mantar.
Independent: Shrishti Khanna and Prashant Pundir.

On October 11, in Delhi:

The Indian Express Hindi: Shashwat, Siya and Vijay, who were detained at Connaught Place.
Hindustan: Ashish Singh.
Nayab World: Nitin Katiyar.
Ulta Chasma: Founder Pragya Mishra, who was carried onto a bus by at least four police personnel.
Peek TV: Vedanta Agarwal and Sara Khan, who were dragged away while filming detentions. A DCP later apologised to Khan, saying police did not know she was from the press.
Asianet News: Sajin A, who was released after about half an hour.
24 News: Reporter Suhail Mohammed, whom police grabbed by the neck, and video journalist V.S. Rahul, whose camera police snatched.
The Caravan: Assistant multimedia producer Ryan Thomas, whom police hit on the head, slapped and prodded with a gun butt when he refused to delete footage, according to The Caravan.
Independent: Nidhi Suresh, M. Rajshekhar and Shyam Meera Singh. Hindu right-wing activists heckled Singh before police detained him.

CPJ has not confirmed the names of several other detained journalists, including a reporter from The Hindu and a Press Trust of India journalist. Other journalists who described their detentions to The News Minute included senior journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Anureet Watta of The Queerbeat, who was held for more than three and a half hours, as well as Monika and Saurabh of The Unsalted.

Outside Delhi, police detained Alt News correspondent Kinjal in Ahmedabad and Scroll’s Divya Aslesha in Pune on October 10. In Bengaluru, police allegedly manhandled photojournalists Pushkar V of Deccan Herald and Syed Asif of The Times of India during a march, The News Minute reported on October 12. Journalist Rana Ayyub told CPJ that police beat her with a lathi, even though they knew she was a journalist.

What happened to journalists’ equipment and phones?

Police seized at least five phones and took some journalists to holding sites up to 65 km away, according to CPJ.

Broken camera: Police took a photojournalist’s camera near Jantar Mantar on October 10. It was returned with a broken lens and a missing battery and memory card. The photojournalist told The News Minute that a new lens would cost Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000.
Seized camera: Delhi Police Special Cell chief Anil Shukla seized journalist Lakhwinder Singh’s camera, worth about Rs 1 lakh, the journalist told The News Minute. Police had not returned it by the time he spoke to the outlet.
Footage: Police pressed Shoaib Daniyal to delete videos of his detention and hit Ryan Thomas when he refused to delete his footage.

Were journalists’ and outlets’ accounts taken down?

Molitics: Its Instagram account, with 5,67,000 followers, was taken down in India “for legal reasons” after a protest reel crossed three million views, a Molitics journalist told The News Minute. Reporters Without Borders reported earlier that Molitics’ Facebook page was blocked.
Shyam Meera Singh: After his detention, X withheld his account in India “in response to a legal demand,” according to CPJ. MediaNama later found the account accessible in India, but X had blocked his post about the restriction.
Peek TV: Received a takedown notice earlier this year over a video on police violence, according to Reporters Without Borders.

What do we know about the takedown orders?

Sahyog orders: Delhi Police’s cybercrime monitoring department issued more than 200 orders through Sahyog ahead of the October 10 protest, people familiar with the matter told The Economic Times. The figure may not include orders issued by other police units.
Instagram accounts: Nearly 20 people approached the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) over two days after Instagram took down or restricted their accounts for posting about the protests, IFF founding director Apar Gupta told The Economic Times. “There is no transparent disclosure by the Delhi Police of any metrics,” Gupta said.
SFLC.in’s count: SFLC.in’s tracker recorded more than 60 instances of content takedowns and account restrictions between October 9 and 11.
The law: Sahyog orders are issued under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology (IT) Act, without the safeguards provided by Section 69A. Gupta said Section 79(3)(b) was intended mainly for financial fraud and related cybercrime, not political expression. Advocate Ankit Sahni said a call for a constitutional authority’s resignation constitutes legitimate political expression. The Karnataka High Court (HC) upheld Sahyog, and X is appealing the decision. SFLC.in has challenged Delhi Police’s role as a takedown nodal agency before the Delhi HC.

What did MeitY ask platforms to do?

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) sent an advisory to all social media platforms on October 8, two days before the protest. It asked them to exercise “enhanced diligence” over false, misleading or out-of-context content linked to “ongoing public events and developments.” The advisory asks platforms to prioritise complaints from “authorised government agencies” about content with “potential implications for public order.” It took effect immediately, but MeitY has not published it.

IFF: The organisation said the advisory cites no legal provision and that “enhanced diligence” does not appear anywhere in the IT Rules. It added that the advisory does not require platforms to tell users when a government complaint leads to action and called for the advisory to be withdrawn.
SFLC.in: The organisation said the advisory makes platforms “the arbiters of truth,” pushing them to over-monitor and censor content.

What have courts said?

October 9: The Supreme Court said notifications imposing a complete ban on public transport were “overreaching.” It directed authorities to run metro and rail services in a regulated manner and publish traffic advisories.
October 11: At an urgent hearing, a bench of Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana found a prima facie case of contempt and issued notices to the authorities. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta denied that anyone had been illegally detained, told the court that internet services had been restored, and assured it that lawyers, journalists and other professionals would not be impeded. The court directed that “Internet facilities should function unhindered,” that there should be no illegal detention of peaceful assemblies, and that “Lawyers, journalists and other professionals shall not be hindered in discharge of their professional duties in any manner whatsoever.” The mobile internet shutdown around Jantar Mantar continued until 10 pm on October 10.
October 12: The Free Speech Collective filed a contempt plea against Delhi Police and the Union Home Ministry.
October 13: Journalists moved the Supreme Court seeking contempt action over detentions and equipment damage, Outlook reported. The court listed the contempt matters for hearing on October 13.

What remains unclear?

How police decided which journalists to allow through, which to detain and whom to release first.
Whether police have returned seized cameras and phones.
Which platforms received the 200 Sahyog orders and whether they informed affected users.
Which agencies have sent complaints under MeitY’s advisory and how many complaints they sent.
Why Instagram withheld Molitics’ account and under which provision.