LONDON: The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned on Wednesday the “unjustified” decision to block Indian journalist Rana Ayyub from traveling outside her country.
“Preventing Rana Ayyub from traveling abroad is another incident in a growing list of unjustified and excessive actions taken by the Indian government against the journalist,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator.
“(The) Indian authorities should immediately cease all forms of harassment and intimidation against Ayyub.”
On Tuesday, immigration officials in Mumbai’s airport stopped Ayyub and told her she was not allowed to travel to London.
The officials told Ayyub that she could not leave the country because she is the subject of a recently opened money laundering investigation and that the enforcement directorate of the Indian Finance Ministry was sending her a summons to appear on April 1, 2022.
Ayyub reportedly received the emailed summons one hour before her flight’s departure.
Ayyub, an investigative journalist and a Washington Post commentator, is a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Hindu nationalist ideology of his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
She was subjected in February to a relentless campaign of online abuse, including death and rape threats, by far-right Hindu nationalist groups. The attacks were reportedly a reaction to Ayyub’s criticism of the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and her commentary on the recent hijab ban at schools and colleges in the southern state of Karnataka.
The enforcement directorate froze Ayyub’s bank account in February and accused her of laundering money that she raised to help those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the 2021 World Press Freedom Index, India ranks 142 out of 180 countries in terms of how freely its media can operate in the country. With four journalists killed in connection with their work in 2020, India is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists.
Coordinated online hate campaigns against journalists who speak or write about topics that annoy the ruling party have increased significantly since Modi claimed power in 2019. The campaigns are particularly violent when the targets are women.
