Voicing their serious concern on the online “misogynistic and sectarian “attacks against Indian journalist Rana Ayyub by the Hindu nationalist groups in India, UN rights experts Monday asked New Delhi to immediately probe stop her judicial harassment.
The statement by Ms Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and Ms Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, comes as The Washington Post contributor Rana Ayyub as
far-right Hindu groups continue to subject her to online attacks..
The UN experts pointed to the attacks as being a result of her reporting on issues affecting minority Muslims in the country, her criticism of New Dehli for its handling of the pandemic, and her comments on the recent ban on hijabs in schools and colleges in the Indian state of Karnataka.
“In response to Ms. Ayyub’s efforts to shine a light on public interest issues and hold power to account through her reporting, she has been maliciously targeted with anonymous death and rape threats by organized groups online,” the experts said.
“The lack of condemnation and proper investigation by the Government, coupled with the legal harassment it has itself inflicted on Ms. Ayyub, has only served to falsely legitimize the attacks and attackers and further endangered her safety.”
The UN rights experts also note that Ayyub has been subjected to legal harassment by the Indian authorities in relation to her reporting for a number of years.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post has come out in support of Ayyub, saying that freedom of the Press is under attack in India.
Ayyub tweeted the full-page message published by the Post.
As per Indian media reports on February 11, for the second time in six months, Ayyub’s bank account and other assets were frozen in response to allegations of money laundering and tax fraud, related to her crowd-funding campaigns to provide assistance to those affected by the pandemic.
As with many of the spurious and defamatory accusations made against Ms. Ayyub in retaliation for her reporting, the experts said, the false allegations can be traced back to a far-right social media group.
UN human rights experts have previously written to the Government on a number of occasions to express their concern in relation to the threats against and legal harassment of Ms. Rana Ayyub.
“The Government is not only failing in its obligation to protect Ms. Ayyub as a journalist, but through its own investigations of Ms. Ayyub, it is also contributing to and exacerbating her perilous situation. It is imperative that the authorities take urgent measures to protect her from the onslaught of threats and hate online and end the investigation against her,” they added.
The first information report against registered against Ayyub under Indian Penal Code alleges that money she had raised in her three online campaigns including “funds for slum dwellers and farmers”, “relief work for Assam, Bihar, and Maharashtra”, and “help for COVID-19 impacted people in India” in 2020-2021, were run without approval certificate or registration from the government as per Foreign Contribution Regulation Act requirement.
