FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 2, 2023
Media Contact: Melissa Garriga | [email protected]
CODEPINK Joins Other Progressive Activists and Organizations For a Rally Outside the New York Times To Hold Them Accountable for Provoking a Grave Assault on Press Freedom.
The government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi executed dozens of raids today targeting progressive news outlet NewsClick. The reports on the raids connected them to a New York Times article that smeared NewsClick journalists as the pretext for their arrests. CODEPINK condemns this assault on press freedoms, carried out to intimidate all those who speak out against the far-right agenda of the Modi government and global peace and solidarity.
These widespread police raids come after the New York Times published an article full of shameful McCarthyite smears directed against journalists and activists who the Times falsely insinuate are part of a global influence operation of the Chinese government. NewsClick was one of the targeted outlets, and following the publication of the article in the Times it became the target of intense attack by right wing politicians and media outlets. While posturing as a champion of freedom of the press, the New York Times in fact provokes crackdowns on free expression through their overriding loyalty to the Pentagon’s wars. Their lies are responsible for the insinerating of $20 Trillion of US taxpayers money in wars since 9/11 and the deaths of 4.5 million people in the middle east.
NewsClick and the journalists who work there are being targeted because they dare to raise their voice against the anti-China narrative, and against the far right policies of the Modi government. They have not broken any laws, despite what notoriously untrustworthy outlets like the New York Times suggest. CODEPINK expresses our solidarity with NewsClick as it stands strong in the face of this latest attack. Our recently submitted OpEd to the New York Times about voices for peace was rejected.
You can read that op-ed here: https://www.codepink.org/nytoped
###
