Four journalists’ associations have strongly condemned the detention and harassment of reporters covering a protest in New Delhi, calling it a direct assault on press freedom and demanding their unconditional release, along with an apology from the Delhi Police.
The joint statement was issued by the Press Club of India (PCI), Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC), Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ), and the Delhi unit of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists.
Journalists were targeted while covering a demonstration demanding the resignation of India’s Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, the statement said.
Despite displaying official press identity cards, reporters were forcibly bundled into buses and transported to detention centres at Chhatrasal Stadium and Chanakyapuri Police Station.
Police personnel also seized their mobile phones and reporting equipment.
The associations pointed out that the Delhi Police dismissed the credentials of independent and digital media practitioners on the pretext that they lacked Press Information Bureau (PIB) accreditation. They noted that statutory protections extend to all legitimate journalists, regardless of government accreditation.
Demanding an impartial inquiry into the actions of the senior police officers who ordered the detentions, the media bodies also criticised the broader clampdown in the capital, marked by the deployment of more than 22,000 security personnel, metro station closures and internet disruptions, describing these measures as symptomatic of an authoritarian regime suppressing peaceful public assembly.
