India dubs the allegations ‘baseless and unwarranted’ after consultants say Rana Ayyub subjected to ‘relentless misogynistic’ assaults.
UN human rights consultants have stated that investigative journalist Rana Ayyub has been subjected to “judicial harassment” and urged Indian authorities to “promptly” examine “relentless misogynistic and sectarian” assaults on social media in opposition to her.
Ayyub, who’s a columnist with the Washington Publish, has accused the federal government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of attacking her for her crucial reporting of the federal government. The Publish issued a full-page commercial on Sunday in help of Ayyub saying “the free press is below assault in India”.
Irene Khan, particular rapporteur on the proper to freedom of opinion and expression and Mary Lawlor, particular rapporteur on the state of affairs of human rights defenders, in an announcement on Monday stated that Ayyub has been “maliciously focused with nameless dying and rape threats by organised teams on-line” for “holding energy to account by way of her reporting”.
“The dearth of condemnation and correct investigation by the federal government, coupled with the authorized harassment it has itself inflicted on Ms. Ayyub, has solely served to falsely legitimise the assaults and attackers and additional endangered her security,” the assertion stated.
The UN assertion comes days after India’s Enforcement Directorate launched a cash laundering investigation in opposition to the investigative journalist who is predicated within the monetary hub of Mumbai.
? Intimidations and authorized harassment in opposition to @washingtonpost columnist @RanaAyyub should finish.
IPI joins accomplice orgs at @TheCAOV in alerting the intl group concerning the suffocating environment wherein Ayyub is pressured to dwell and work.#WESTANDWITHRANA https://t.co/rNj9gRwAWF
— IPI-The World Community for Unbiased Journalism (@globalfreemedia) February 21, 2022
Ayyub issued an announcement saying “the allegations levelled in opposition to me is not going to face up to any truthful and trustworthy scrutiny.
“The smear marketing campaign in opposition to me is not going to deter me from my skilled dedication to proceed to do my work as a journalist, and particularly to lift crucial points and ask inconvenient questions, as is my obligation as a journalist in a constitutional democracy.”
Final month she acquired on-line rape and dying threats. The Mumbai police has arrested an individual in reference to the case.
Hindu supremacist teams have filed a number of police complaints in opposition to her for feedback on the latest hijab ban within the southern state of Karnataka ruled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP).
‘Baseless and unwarranted’
However India has criticised the assertion by the UN, calling it “baseless and unwarranted”.
“Allegations of so-called judicial harassment are baseless & unwarranted. India upholds the rule of regulation, however is equally clear that nobody is above the regulation,” learn a tweet by the deal with of India at UN, Geneva.
“We count on SRs [Special Rapporteurs] to be goal & precisely knowledgeable. Advancing a deceptive narrative solely tarnishes @UNGeneva’s fame,” it stated.
The UN rapporteurs stated that Ayyub continues to be the sufferer of intensifying assaults and threats on-line by far-right Hindu nationalist teams.
They added that for the second time in six months, “Ayyub’s checking account and different property had been frozen in response to seemingly baseless allegations of cash laundering and tax fraud, associated to her crowd-funding campaigns to offer help to these affected by the pandemic.”
Final October, UN human rights consultants wrote to the federal government in regard to threats in opposition to Ayyub.
Ayyub has spoken about assaults she faces on social media. She printed the e-book The Gujarat Recordsdata, which investigated the Gujarat riots in 2002 when Modi was the chief minister of the western Indian state.