'The Uttar Pradesh police has booked the executive editor and editor-in-chief of the news portal Scroll.in under various charges of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and sections of the Indian Penal Code... Sharma recently wrote a series of reports on the poor state of affairs in Varanasi, which is also Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency.
'Ashwini Saini is a contributor to a Facebook page that publishes news on the Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. Saini, who also works as a freelancer for the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran, filed a video report for the page, called ‘Mandi Live’, on April 8. The report highlighted the failure of the district administration in supplying rations to migrant workers stranded in the district’s Sundernagar sub-division.
'After controversy erupted last week over the teaser of the Tamil show Godman on Zee5, the streaming platform has said that it has suspended the release of the show at the moment. The statement also said that the platform and producers of the show did not intend to offend anyone or hurt anyone’s personal or religious beliefs of any community... The show, which is fictional and starred actors Jayapakash and ‘Daniel’ Balaji, came under fire last week after the two minute teaser of the show faced a lot of backlash on social media and was eventually pulled down.
'Tansen Tiwari, a veteran journalist from Gwalior district in Madhya Pradesh, has been booked by the police for referring to Bharatiya Janata Party leaders as gappu (braggart) and tadipar (externed) in a social media post on Sunday. The Gwalior police registered the case after a local BJP leader and advocate, Awdhesh Singh Bhadauria, reported the matter to the Gola Ka Mandir police station on his party’s letterhead...'
'Local authorities across India filed legal notices against, questioned, or detained at least eight journalists between March 29, 2020, and May 17, 2020, amid the country’s lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus, according to CPJ interviews with the journalists and media reports. According to Om Sharma, a journalist with Hindi daily Divya Himachal in Baddi district of Himachal Pradesh, who spoke to CPJ via phone, and the New Delhi-based news website Newslaundry, since late March police have opened three criminal investigations against Sharma.
'In the latest instance of harassment of the media for critical reporting, the Uttar Pradesh administration has lodged an FIR against Ravindra Saxena, a journalist at Today-24 news portal for reporting on the mismanagement and negligence at a quarantine centre in Sitapur district. In a video report, Saxena spoke to people at a quarantine centre in Maholi tehsil of Sitapur district of eastern Uttar Pradesh, who alleged that they were served rotten rice...'
'Last week, The New Indian Express, one of India’s major English newspapers, pulled down an article that was heavily critical of the Centre’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The article, entitled ‘Centre’s COVID-19 Communication Plan: hold back data, gag agencies and scientists’, discussed the government’s reluctance to share outbreak-related data and attempts to muzzle scientists.
'At least six journalists have been booked by Himachal Pradesh police for comments and ground reports on problems being faced by migrant labourers, businesses and citizens during the COVID-19 lockdown. According to a report on Newslaundry, the reasons behind these cases filed against the journalists ranged from their reporting on hunger among migrant workers, lack of proper food distribution, to their social media activity which involved sharing reports of other newspapers, to criticising the district administration for laxity in areas such as quarantining inter-state travellers...'
'The editor of a Gujarati news portal was charged with sedition and questioned by the police after he published a report that suggested the chief minister could be changed by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party due to rising number of coronavirus cases in the state...'
'The Coimbatore police have arrested the founder of SimpliCity, a hyperlocal news portal, for two reports that highlighted shortcomings faced by government healthcare professionals and alleged corruption by some employees of the public distribution system (PDS), making this the first documented case of a media head being jailed during the COVID-19 and lockdown crisis by the authorities for critical reportage. Andrew Sam Raja Pandian was charged under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Epidemic Diseases Act after a complaint was filed by M.
