Delhi Police Detain, Repress Journalists for Second Consecutive Day

Despite strong condemnation from journalist organisations in India and across Asia, and a clear statement from the Supreme Court that journalists performing their professional duties must not be detained or harassed, Delhi Police continued to detain journalists for a second consecutive day on October 11.

Before the protests, Delhi Police had issued a controversial advisory requiring journalists covering events on the ground to clearly display their press cards. However, on both October 10 and 11, police disregarded press credentials and forcibly detained several journalists.

While independent journalists were mainly detained on the first day, several journalists from mainstream media outlets, including Hindustan Times, The Indian Express and the Press Trust of India (PTI), were also detained on October 11. M. Rajasekhar, a journalist and regular contributor to The Wire, was among those reportedly detained.

Short-form video news outlet Peak TV said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that Delhi Police personnel had violently dragged away its journalists, Vedant Agarwal and Sara Khan, while they were reporting on the police detention of peaceful protesters at Content Place.

The Indian Express reported on X that three journalists from its Hindi team—Mr. Shashwat, Ms. Siya and Mr. Vijay—had been detained by Delhi Police while covering the events. “Even after identifying themselves as journalists and explaining that they were performing their professional duties, they were forcibly put on a bus,” the newspaper said.

The newspaper also reported that police had seized Ms. Siya’s phone. It published a video that Mr. Shashwat had sent from inside the bus where detainees were being held. At 3:33 pm, journalist Srinivasan Jain posted on X that Delhi Police had forcibly put at least six more journalists into a van shortly after he questioned officers about the detention of another journalist at the same location.

Mr. Jain wrote, “When I questioned the police, one of them told me: ‘This is not the right time to ask questions’.” He also shared a video showing Delhi Police forcibly putting a woman journalist into a van. According to Mr. Jain, the police continued to act this way despite repeated explanations that she was a journalist and despite her media identification badge being shown to them.

Reporter Hrishikesh Sharma also posted about journalists being held inside a Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus. Following the latest detentions, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly urged Delhi Police to honour the government’s assurance to the Supreme Court that journalists would be able to perform their professional duties without obstruction. It also called on the police to stop targeting journalists covering the protests.

The organisation said, “As the world’s largest democracy, India has a special responsibility to protect press freedom and uphold journalists’ constitutional right to report freely without interference.” On October 10, the CPJ, DIGIPUB, a joint platform of digital news organisations, the National Alliance of Journalists and the Editors Guild of India had also strongly condemned the incidents.

The Wire journalists Jahnavi Sen, Shrabasti Dasgupta and Antara Barua said police were forcing people onto buses without paying attention to their press cards. When other journalists protested loudly, police were forced to release Jahnavi Sen, who had nearly been detained.