‘Acts of intimidation’: Media organisations condemn raids at ‘Dainik Bhaskar’, ‘Bharat Samachar’

Media organisations on Thursday said the Income Tax Department’s raids at the offices of the Dainik Bhaskar group was the government’s attempt to intimidate the press. The IT department also conducted raids at the office of Lucknow-based TV channel Bharat Samachar.

Dainik Bhaskar had widely reported on the second wave of Covid-19 and its devastating effects. In a series of reports, the newspaper was critical of the Centre’s claims on vaccination figures, underreporting of deaths, floating bodies in Ganga river and the toll due to oxygen shortages. Bharat Samachar had highlighted the Adityanath government’s poor handling of the coronavirus crisis in Uttar Pradesh.

Last month, an opinion piece by Dainik Bhaskar’s national editor Om Gaur on the Covid-19 deaths was published in The New York Times. Headlined, “The Ganges is returning the dead. It does not lie”, the article said India’s holiest river was a testimony to the Narendra Modi administration’s failure in handling the health crisis.

The Press Council of India said it deplores such acts of intimidation by the government through enforcement agencies to deter the independent media from discharging their duties.

The Press Club of India deplores such acts of intimidation by the government through inforcement agencies to deter the independent media from discharging their duty to serve the society pic.twitter.com/IMZgj3rT1e

— Press Club of India (@PCITweets) July 22, 2021

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a United States-based…

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