Harassment – Journalists

A journalist in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow was interrogated by the Special Task Force of the state’s police after reporting on low-quality personal protective equipment kits supplied to hospitals and colleges in the state.

On April 17, Lucknow-based journalist Manish Pandey of News1 India, a Hindi news channel, broke the story of a letter sent by the Directorate General of Medical Education and Training, Uttar Pradesh, to bureaucrats in the state’s medical education department on April 13. The letter said that the PPE kits supplied to eight hospitals and medical colleges in the state did not meet the required quality standards. The letter specifically stated that the length of the kits’ gowns were inadequate by set parameters. Pandey’s story raised questions about bureaucrats who supply below par equipment in the middle of a Covid-19 crisis.

On April 30, 13 days after the story was broadcast, Pandey was asked to visit the Special Task Force headquarters in Lucknow by assistant superintendent of police Vishal Vikram Singh. On May 1, Singh interrogated Pandey for nearly an hour, between 11 am and 12 pm. Singh made constant inquiries about the source who leaked the letter to Pandey.