Authorities in India continue to investigate, detain journalists amid COVID-19 pandemic

'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.

Sharma told CPJ that police opened the first investigation on March 29 on charges that he issued a false warning, spread false information, disobeyed the order of a public servant, acted negligently to spread infection of a dangerous disease, and endangered the life and personal safety of others for his Facebook Live report on a roadside protest by migrant workers unable to afford food because of the lockdown. Sharma made the report, which aired March 29, on his personal Facebook page, which he uses for his journalism; he counts 5,897 followers...'

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