 "Shashi Tharoor")
Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Shashi Tharoor criticised the Delhi Police on Thursday for their raid on the premises of the online news portal NewsClick, calling it "unfortunate and a disgrace to democracy and traditions of freedom."
"Freedom of the press is fundamental to any democracy. In our country, we have an extensive history of Supreme Court judgments upholding this freedom. I believe the government has erred. If there's a charge of illegal or improper foreign funding, there are appropriate ways to investigate it. Confiscating journalists' laptops and depriving them of access is not right," Tharoor stated.
He further added, "There is something really wrong with this kind of approach."
#WATCH | Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala: On Delhi Police conducting raids at different premises linked to NewsClick, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor says, "Freedom of the press is fundamental to any democracy...What happened yesterday was not only unfortunate, it was a disgrace to our… pic.twitter.com/8pcrneXxpU
— ANI (@ANI) October 5, 2023
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Continuing his critique of the BJP-led Centre, the Congress leader said, "It is the action of an insecure and frankly autocratic government. It is truly unacceptable."
On Tuesday morning, a special cell of the Delhi Police conducted searches at the office of NewsClick and journalists associated with the portal.
These raids extended to at least 35 locations across Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, Mumbai, and Ghaziabad. Police confiscated the laptops and mobile phones of journalists, freelancers, writers, and satirists, questioning them for around eight hours.
Hours later, police arrested NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and Human Resources (HR) head Amit Chakravarty. On Wednesday, the two were remanded to police custody for seven days.
The action against NewsClick comes nearly two months after an investigation published in The New York Times alleged that the online portal was part of a global network that received funding from American billionaire Neville Roy Singham to disseminate Chinese propaganda.
The report also cited emails purportedly sent by Singham to NewsClick, requesting a series of articles to spotlight China's efforts to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.
