Campaign Against Hate Speech (CAHS) (Hate Speech Beda) has condemned the arrests of journalist and Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair and secretary of Citizens for Justice and Peace Teesta Setalvad and also condemned the Indian media who pronounced them guilty even before they have been convicted of any crime.
In a statement, CAHS said, “We also condemn the hate speech being directed against these well-respected human rights defenders by Indian media that have taken to pronouncing them guilty even before charges have been framed, let alone the conclusion of a trial.”
Campaign Against Hate Speech is a group of concerned activists, parents, lawyers and academics working to combat hate speech by sections of media and public personalities and those posted on social media. It also works to ensure compliance by media companies to law and ethics regarding hate speech.
Noting that both Setalvad and Zubair have been at the forefront of challenging the regime of hate speech, fake news, and state-sponsored violence against minority communities in India, CAHS said, “Unsurprisingly, over the years they have been the subject of targeted attacks both online and offline. Their arrests however represent a manifold escalation in the menacing threats they face in their efforts to place on official and public record the violence that minority communities in India are facing.”
While the Gujarat anti-terrorist squad arrested Teesta on Saturday, Zubair was arrested by Delhi Police Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations unit on Monday evening for allegedly hurting religious sentiments. A Delhi court on Tuesday remanded Zubair to police custody for four days.
“Just as with coverage of anti-CAA protests, Tablighi Jamaat, and the hijab controversy—to name a few—the media has been whipping up hostile sentiments against these arrested individuals.”
The group said that Setalvad is being called a ‘conflict entrepreneur’, a ‘fraud’, ‘fixer of the highest order’, and unsubstantiated claims are aired claiming that she is responsible for tutoring victim statements. On the other hand, Zubair has been called ‘Hindu phobic’, ‘Hindu hater’, and he has repeatedly attacked Hindu sentiments on Twitter. He is portrayed as a criminal responsible for ‘hurting Hindu sentiments’, the statement read.
“However, hardly any channel has questioned whether these arrests were necessary, undertaken with due diligence, or even what evidence the state claims it has against these individuals,” it said.
CAHS said the media’s failure question the authorities have shown the complete “absence of criticality, scepticism, fairness, and objectivity in today’s news channels.”
Instead, the group said that media convictions of accused ‘reported’ with extreme sensationalism have become the norm. “This puts the accused, their families and the communities they belong to at-risk psychologically, socially and economically.”
“To silence voices of reason citing reasons of ‘offensive speech’, political parties, individuals and groups are using existing speech laws which were intended to aid the powerless in countering real hate speech,” it added.
“In pursuing such complaints, the chilling message being sent to journalists, human rights activists, members of minority groups, writers, and scholars is that they will face the full wrath of state power.”
Campaign Against Hate Speech has called upon the Indian public to demand their “right to free and fair journalism and truthful & objective reportage from media channels.”
“We call upon the nation’s judicial bodies to take cognizance of the increasing harassment of the country’s leading journalists and human rights defenders. We call upon the media fraternity to raise their voices against the continued persecution of journalists, especially Muslim journalists, of which Mr. Zubair’s arrest is only the latest instance,” they said.
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Rabia Shireen is a Staff Reporter at The Cognate.
