National and international press bodies have condemned the arrest of journalist and Alt News Cofounder Mohammed Zubair and demanded his immediate and unconditional release.
The Committee to Protect Journalists on Monday said Indian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Zubair and cease harassing him in retaliation for his work.
CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, Steven Butler in Washington, D.C. said, “The arrest of journalist Mohammad Zubair marks another low for press freedom in India, where the government has created a hostile and unsafe environment for members of the press reporting on sectarian issues.”
“Authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Zubair, and allow him to pursue his journalistic work without further interference,” Butler added.
On Monday evening, Delhi Police Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations unit arrested Zubair, after summoning him for questioning. He has been remanded in police custody for a day and will be produced in court for a bail hearing after Tuesday.
Pratik Sina, Zubair’s colleague and Alt News co-founder alleged that Zubair had been summoned for questioning in relation to a 2020 criminal investigation over his social media posts, for which Delhi High Court had granted him protection from arrest. When he responded to that summons, the cops arrested him over a criminal investigation acse opened earlier this month in regards to Zubair’s tweet by an anonymous Twitter user with the account @balajikijaiin.
According to reports, Zubair has been accused of promoting enmity between different groups and committing malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings.
The @balajikijaiin account’s most recent tweet was on June 19, in which it had reposted a 2018 tweet by Zubair commenting on a hotel changing its name from “Honeymoon Hotel” to “Hanuman Hotel” after the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party came to power.
Tagging the Delhi police in its June 19 tweet, @balajikijaiin called Zubair’s comment a “direct insult of Hindus,” and asked the police to “kindly take action against this guy.”
Surprisingly, netizens have found that the 2018 post that police claimed had hurt religious sentiments was, in fact, the still of a Hrishikesh Mukherjee film.
The Editors Guild of India has also condemned the arrest of Mohammed Zubair noting that it was a bizarre turn of events, the statement read, “This is extremely disturbing because Zubair and his website AltNews have done some exemplary work over the past few years in identifying fake news and countering disinformation campaigns, in a very objective and factual manner.”
The release signed by EGI president Seema Mustafa, general secretary Sanjay Kapoor and treasurer Anant Nath also contextualises his renewed presence in the radar of rightwing Twitter.
“In fact it was an exposure of toxic remarks of a ruling party spokesperson on a TV channel that allowed the party to make amends,” the statement referred to Zubair’s tweets highlighting BJP leader Nupur Sharma’s comments against Prophet Muhammad at a national television debate.
After facing international backlash, BJP suspended Sharma and expelled Naveen Jindal who had posted similar comments.
“It is apparent that AltNews’ alert vigilance was resented by those who use disinformation as a tool to polarise the society and rake nationalist sentiments,” the statement noted.
“We hail all courageous defenders of democratic systems that stand against oppression and violence, and will step up international cooperation to improve the resilience of democratic societies globally,” a joint statement at the meet said.
Several including Opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists, progressives and thousands of social media users are calling for the immediate release of Zubair.
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Rabia Shireen is a Staff Reporter at The Cognate.
