London – In a country marked by religious tensions, religion was used as a justification for the arrest of Muslim journalist Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of India’s leading information-control site Alt News. In addition to him, two more journalists have been prosecuted in the country in recent weeks on the same charge of “injuring religious sentiment”.
Zubair is a famous critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has faced further legal disputes over his social media posts classified as anti-Muslim hate speech by the government.
Zubair’s arrest and the accusations against Indian journalists Navika Kumar and Saba Naqvi sparked backlash from international organizations, including Amnesty International and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), which view the actions as a form of pressure on the country’s media.
Journalist arrested for blasphemy in India was already a target of the party
Mohammed Zubair is 39 years old and co-founded the Alt News fact-checking website in 2017 with his colleague Kural Sinha. The platform has become a reference in the country for checking facts and public statements by the government.
According to media reports, the journalist was summoned by the police last Monday (27) for questioning about a 2020 case involving social media posts, which he is currently protected from jail by the Delhi High Court. IJF.
Despite this, Zubayr was arrested. Authorities filed a separate complaint against the Hindu god Hanuman by an unidentified person on a Twitter post in 2018.
The satirical tweet read: “Before 2014: Honeymoon Hotel. After 2014: Hanuman Hotel”.
The anonymous complaint claimed that the journalist’s link between the god and the word “Honeymoon” was a direct insult to Hindus because of the god’s link to celibacy.
Before 2014: Honeymoon Hotel
After 2014: Hanuman Hotel. #SanskaariHotel pic.twitter.com/1ri5i3IXy8— Mohammed Zubayr (@zoo_bear) March 23, 2018
One of the most critical journalists of the Indian Prime Minister has been arrested under the guise of religion. He was accused of “inciting enmity between different groups” and “malicious acts intended to infuriate religious sentiments”.
A day after his arrest, the journalist was placed in precautionary custody and will be detained for another four days for questioning.
According to an Al Jazeera, Zubair has long been in the limelight of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) due to Alt News’ check-ups, which have repeatedly pointed to false allegations and news shared by the political group. notice.
Last month, BJP faced one of the biggest crises of recent years. Two officials, including the party spokesman, Hz. Nupur Sharma, who was suspended from office.
Al Jazeera points out that Zubair was one of the first journalists to post a video of their controversial speech on Twitter, where he probably has more than 500,000 followers. sharma.
In the past, the journalist has already been the target of judicial harassment for his posts on social networks. In June 2021, Rana Ayyub, another reporter she and Modi follow, was investigated for “making the community uneasy” after she shared a video on Twitter.
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Protest against arrest of journalist in India
Mohammed Zubair’s arrest had international repercussions, prompting several organizations to pressure the Indian government to release him.
The country ranks 150th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom index, with Brazil ranked 11th since this year.
Representatives of the Journalists’ Union of India (IJU) said his arrest was another “open attack” on press freedom in the country.
“[É] The continuation of the government’s witch hunt to silence the media and independent critics.
“The Union of Journalists of India condemns in the strongest terms the arrest of Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of Alt News’ fact-checking website Alt News. His arrest by Delhi Police is related to a 2018 post alleged by a Twitter user as ‘offending religious sentiments’. It stinks of malicious intent.”
The IJF also condemned Zubair’s arrest, urging the Indian police to immediately drop all charges against him and remove him from police custody.
Amnesty International spoke strongly about the case.
Aakar Patel, the organization’s chairman of the board in India, said the country’s officials targeted Zubair “for his important work in combating the rise of fake news and misinformation, and for his condemnation of discrimination against minorities”.
The arrest of Mohammed Zubair shows that the danger faced by human rights defenders in India has reached a crisis point.”
Arrest of one of its founders, Mohammed Zubayr @AltNews – An independent fact-checking website for a satirical tweet in 2018 shows that the danger faced by human rights defenders has reached a crisis point in India.
— Amnesty International (@amnesty) 28 June 2022
Journalists Sued for Contempt of Religion in India
In two separate cases last week, journalists were also tried in India on grounds of religion, but did not go to jail.
Navika Kumar, editor-in-chief of Times Now Navbharat, hosted the controversial show with BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.
In a debate published on May 26, Sharma made “an objectionable statement about the Prophet Muhammad and Islam,” according to the party that decided to suspend it.
On June 14, two women were reported to the police on charges of “disrespecting Islam and influencing religious feelings” in the country.
In one of the articles in which the Alt News journalist was also investigated, both were prosecuted: “Deliberate and malicious acts aimed at injuring the religious feelings of any class, humiliating their religion or religious beliefs.”
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In an unrelated incident, journalist Saba Naqvi was accused of undermining religious sentiment by posting a satirical meme on Twitter about a symbol of the Hindu god Shiva, which is said to have been found in a mosque in the city of Varanasi.
In a police investigation, he was charged with “inciting enmity between different groups”, “deliberate acts aimed at violating the religious sentiments of any class” and “inciting crimes against the state or public peace”.
According to IJF, this is the second time Naqvi has been accused of linking to his social media posts. She was sued in 2021 for sharing a video on Twitter with Mohammed Zubair and Rana Ayyub.
“The criminal prosecutions against journalists for their television broadcasts and social media posts show the extent of the Indian authorities’ efforts to silence independent reporting,” the federation demanded the Indian government to drop the charges against women.
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source: Noticias
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