Are Journalists in India Practising "Freedom of Press"

Anvay Naik, a 53-year-old interior designer, ran a company called Concorde Designs Pvt Ltd. In May 2018, he was found hanging in his house in Alibaug and his mother was found strangled to death. The police later found a suicide note, in which Naik had claimed that Arnab Goswami and two others - Feroz Shaikh of IcastX/Skimedia, a media services firm, and Niteesh Sarda of Smartwork, which provides “flexible workspaces” — owed him a total of Rs 5.4 crore.

This led to abetment to suicide case being filed under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code against the aforementioned. However, in April 2019, the Raigad Police said there was no evidence in the case and a local court allowed the case to be closed.

REOPENING OF THE CASE

In 2019, BJP was in power in Maharashtra and the government was led by Devendra Fadnavis. While Shiv Sena and BJP contested together in the subsequent assembly polls in 2019, they split over the chief minister seat.

In May, Naik’s daughter met Nationalist Congress Party leader Anil Deshmukh, who is also Maharashtra’s home minister, and said that justice had not been delivered and that these entities had led her father and grandmother to suicide. Deshmukh then asked the CID to reopen the case. However, Raigad Police Wednesday said Goswami’s arrest wasn’t based on the CID investigation. The police had evidently reopened the case after going to the local court.

Journalists have been charged under sedition, official secrets act, incitement to riots, and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in the past, noted Shekhar Gupta, a journalist. “In our courts, it is difficult to get an FIR or a case withdrawn even when no evidence is found. So then the process is used as punishment. This was started by the Uttar Pradesh government, and has opened the floodgates ever since, like the recent example of journalist Siddique Kappan who was booked under sedition while going to report the Hathras case” said Shekar Gupta.

IS GOSWAMI A VICTIM

Goswami is today the victim of a fight between the central government and the Shiv Sena-led government in Maharashtra,” Gupta said. This feud between the BJP and the Shiv Sena goes back to the Sushant Singh Rajput case. Arnab Goswami and Republic TV made the Sushant Singh Rajput case into a very big story and it played into Bihar’s politics. The central government and the Bihar government, which is a BJP-allied government, intervened in the case.

Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami was released on interim bail on November 11 from Mumbai’s Taloja Jail following Supreme Court’s order. While he was traveling back from jail, he came out of his car roof and chanted ‘Vande Mataram.’ SC ordered the release of Arnab Goswami and other co-accused in an abetment to suicide case. Goswami was asked to pay a bond of Rs 50,000.

MORE TROUBLE FOR ARNAB

But Arnab Goswami is in fresh trouble as an FIR has been lodged against him for 'assaulting' a woman police officer during his arrest on Wednesday (November 4, 2020). The fresh FIR has been registered at the NM Joshi Marg Police Station for allegedly assaulting a lady police officer when a police team reached his residence on Wednesday morning. Goswami has been booked under the IPC sections 353, 504, 506, and 34.

THE POLITICAL ANGLE

Taking a swipe at the BJP, the ruling Shiv Sena on Saturday likened the hue and cry over the arrest of television journalist Arnab Goswami with the reaction of Donald Trump to the outcome of the US Presidential elections

“Just like Trump’s actions that included spreading fake news and demanding that counting of votes be stopped and moving the court are against the law and prestige of America, BJP leaders in Maharashtra are protesting against the arrest of a suspected accused in an abetment to suicide case,” the Sena said

The BJP in turn alleged that the arrest of Goswami by Raigad police on Wednesday in the 2018 case was politically motivated and amounted to muzzling the freedom of the press. Amit Malviya, the head of the BJP's IT cell, tweeted, "Maharashtra government’s high handedness is appalling. Their assault on Arnab Goswami and Republic TV is an act of vengeance because they questioned Sonia Gandhi’s silence on Palghar. If you didn’t know what Emergency looked like, Congress has rolled it out again! Sena-NCP complicit."

WHY WAS KUNAL KAMRA DRAGGED INTO THE EQUATION?

And while this was going on Kunal Kamra a stand-up comedian and a staunch critique of Arnab in a series of tweets posted Wednesday, after the top court’s order to grant bail to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami in a 2018 suicide abetment case, Kamra criticised the SC for fast-tracking the hearing of his appeal. Later, the AG’s office received eight letters, asking for his consent to initiate contempt of court proceedings under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, and the Supreme Court of India rules.

“I find that today people believe that they can boldly and brazenly condemn the Supreme Court of India and its judges by exercising what they believe is their freedom of speech,” K.K. Venugopal, The Attorney General of India, said in a letter. Venugopal’s letter further stated: “…I believe that it is time that people understand that attacking the Supreme Court of India brazenly will attract punishment under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971.”

CONCLUSION

But while both the political parties are accusing each other of suppressing the press, India ranks 142 out of 180 countries in the press freedom index, and journalists that are honest to their jobs are booked under UAPA, which labels them as "terrorists" and not 'criminals'.