Journalists - Role, Rights, Arrests
The unequal distribution of capital means that regional journalists operate inside a field where they are constantly overpowered before a story even begins.
The recent threat issued to journalist Rana Deka by former Assam Civil Service officer Hitesh Dev Sarma is not merely an unpleasant exchange between a powerful bureaucrat and a reporter. It is a symptom of a deeper, structural vulnerability that defines the everyday life of regional journalists in India. https://thewire.in/media/why-regional-journalists-need-greater-protection-from-threats-violence
In metropolitan newsrooms, institutional strength and legal safeguards cushion conflicts, but in the Northeast, the field is sharply tilted: journalists rely mainly on symbolic capital like credibility and public trust, while officials hold economic, social and institutional power, media houses remain financially fragile and dependent on state advertising, and blurred field boundaries force reporters to rely on the very authorities they may need to expose.
Thus, what happened to Rana Deka should not be understood as a personal dispute. It should be recognised as the field disciplining a journalist, a way of policing boundaries and punishing transgression.
by Alankar Kaushik 01/12/2025
The report titled Who Controls the Narrative? Legal Restrictions on Freedom of Expression in the Commonwealth, finds that criminal provisions for speech offences, including defamation and sedition, as well as violations of national security laws, are arbitrarily applied to intimidate and silence journalists, human rights defenders, and government critics.
The report concludes that the Commonwealth’s past inaction has contributed to the serious and persistent challenges to the protection of freedom of expression and the rule of law in some member countries.
11/09/2025
On August 12, 2025 – the day the Supreme Court issued notice on The Wire’s petition challenging the constitutionality of the new sedition law and protected its journalists, including founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan from any “coercive action” by Assam Police in a case filed in Morigaon in July – the Guwahati Crime Branch summoned Varadarajan and senior journalist Karan Thapar in a fresh ‘sedition’ FIR filed by the state police. Assam Police Invoke Sedition Law in Second Case Against The Wire, Naming Varadarajan, Karan Thapar - The Wire
19/08/2025
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'Vindictive': Journalists' Organisations Speak Against Assam Police's Actions Against The Wire
The Press Club of India and the Indian Women Press Corps have expressed “dismay at the vindictive actions unleashed by Assam Police” against The Wire and its journalists, in invoking Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita against the news platform for the second time in two months.
19/08/2025
The FIR was registered on July 13 at the Ballia police station in connection to a video on his YouTube channel on July 12, in which Anjum had alleged large-scale irregularities in the voter list in the Sahebpur Kamal assembly constituency.
The video showed how the SIR process was being undertaken in Balia and claimed that many voter forms were being filled and uploaded without the Election Commission’s required documents or photographs.
https://thewire.in/rights/journalist-ajit-anjum-booked-over-his-video-on-bihar-sir-digipub-condemns
14/07/2025
The video of the chilling attack began with Barve, founder-editor of Samarth Bharat newspaper and SBP YouTube channel, speaking on video about illegal construction activity on a riverbed in Nigothwadi village near Manchar town in Pune district of Maharashtra. Suddenly, Morde swiftly raised a wooden rod and hit her repeatedly even as she screamed for help. https://thewire.in/media/pune-journalist-sneha-barve-brutally-attacked-while-reporting-heres-what-happened
Barve was literally pounded with the huge rod till she became unconscious. The cameraperson, Ajaz Sheikh, who continued to record the attack, was also beaten when Morde’s aides realised the attack was being videographed. Bystanders who came to her rescue, were also severely beaten and one’s hand was fractured while another got his nose broken.
free Speech Colective
15/07/2026
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