At event on 13th May, The Clooney Foundation for Justice’s TrialWatch Initiative and its partners, the National Law University Delhi and Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute, launched a new report that documents the widespread criminalization of journalists across states in India.
Based on analysis of 423 criminal cases registered against 427 journalists across the States and Union Territories of India, the report seeks to shed light on the offences most used against journalists, the reporting that led to the cases, and the journalists’ experience of the criminal justice system.
The Executive Summary of the report states, “In India, freedom of the press is guaranteed under the Constitution, and the Indian Supreme Court has stressed the importance of journalists being able to do their jobs without the threat of reprisal. Yet, our data shows that the criminal law is routinely used against journalists in precisely that way—with journalists most often facing charges for reporting on public officials, a core part of any journalist’s job.”
Read the full report here.
Visit their interactive website here.