20 journalists detained in Delhi while covering anti-SIR protests; women reporters allegedly harassed

New Delhi: Delhi Police detained at least 20 journalists on October 11 while they were covering protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. The demonstrations, which have continued amid concerns over the Election Commission’s handling of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, also raised concerns over journalists’ ability to report freely from protest sites.

Several women journalists, including members of Maktoob’s reporting team, were allegedly harassed by Hindu right-wing men at Connaught Place in the presence of uniformed police personnel.

Maktoob’s Fida Fathima, editorial intern Nada Saeeda and contributor Aktarista Ansari were reportedly surrounded by men claiming to be journalists and subjected to Islamophobic slurs.

Journalist Nandini Singh also broke down after allegedly being harassed and groped by the same group. The men, reportedly carrying press cards, accused her of using abusive language against police, a charge she denied. Her colleague alleged that police failed to intervene despite repeated requests for assistance.

“Police are not allowing peaceful protesters, but they are okay with people who are here to spread an anti-protest narrative,” Rohan of The Unedited Media to Maktoob.

Those detained included three journalists from The Indian Express Hindi — Shaswat, Siya and Vijay — a Hindustan Times reporter, two journalists from Peek TV and at least three journalists working with Malayalam news channels, including Reporter TV, 24 News and Asianet News.

According to The Indian Express, its journalists were taken to Chhatrasal Stadium before being released. Newslaundry also reported that its journalist Nidhi Suresh had been detained.

Peek TV said its journalists, Vedanta Agarwal and Sara Khan, were allegedly dragged away and detained while covering the detention of protesters at Connaught Place, despite displaying their press credentials.

The Malayalam journalists were also released several hours after their detention.

The detentions followed similar incidents on Saturday, when Scroll journalists Ayush Tiwari and Shoaib Daniyal were detained in Delhi, while Divya Aslesha was detained in Pune while covering demonstrations demanding Kumar’s resignation.

Journalists associated with Newslaundry, The Quint, Navbharat Times, Reuters, Alt News, BOOM Live, Molitics and Reporter TV were also detained on Saturday and later released.

The demonstrations have been organised by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) political campaign and student groups affiliated with Left parties. Protests have taken place in several parts of the country over the past two days, with demonstrators raising concerns about the Election Commission’s functioning and the SIR exercise.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said at least 16 journalists were forcibly detained while covering public demonstrations in India on Saturday.

According to RSF, those detained in Delhi included Anushka Bhardwaj of Business Standard; Hritik Joshi and Rahul Charas of Navbharat Times; Shoaib Daniyal of Scroll; Anshu of Newslaundry; Saurabh Sharma of Reuters; Jagriti Trisha of BOOM; Shivang Shukla of Mo; Neeraj Jha of Molitics India; and freelance journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta.

Kinjal of Alt News was detained in Ahmedabad, while Divya Aslesha of Scroll was detained in Pune.

Condemning the detentions, RSF said reporting on matters of public interest was a fundamental part of a journalist’s work and described the police action against media workers as unacceptable.

The Asia desk of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Delhi Police to release all detained journalists and media workers immediately, return their equipment, investigate allegations of physical abuse and allow journalists to report on the demonstrations and police response without interference.

In a post on X, CPJ said it was monitoring the situation and had confirmed the detentions. It stressed that a free and independent press was essential to democracy and urged authorities to ensure journalists could carry out their work without obstruction.

The United Nations also urged Indian authorities to respect the right to peaceful assembly, emphasising that any restrictions on peaceful demonstrations must satisfy strict requirements of necessity and proportionality.