The American president’s White House press secretary publicly defended a Wall Street Journal reporter Sabrina Siddiqui who has faced online harassment since asking Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently during his official visit a question about human rights situation in India. Wall Street Journal Reporter Sabrina Siddiqui has come under a barrage of attacks on social media since she asked Modi on Thursday what steps his government would take to uphold free speech and to improve the rights of Muslims and other minorities in India. The harassment has included threats, slurs and baseless accusations that Siddiqui asked the question out of political bias. The critics and attackers have ranged from anonymous trolls to at least one Indian government official with ties to Modi’s Hindu nationalist party.
The White House officials decried the harassment of the reporter. We absolutely condemn any harassment of journalists anywhere under any circumstances,” National Security Council spokesman America John Kirby told reporters. “That’s completely unacceptable. And it’s antithetical to the very principles of democracy that were on display last week during the state visit.” The White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre echoed National Security Council’s spokesman Kirby’s sentiments, saying that the White House held the news conference because it was committed to freedom of the press. “We certainly condemn any efforts of intimidation or harassment of a journalist or any journalist that is just trying to do their job,” she said.
Indian Prime Minister Narinder Modi, who represents the right-wing Hindu nationalist party in India, has served as India’s prime minister since 2014, winning reelection in 2019. India does not have term limits for its prime ministers, and Modi is gearing up to run for reelection to a third term next year. Prime Minister Narinder Modi government has been criticized for eroding India’s democracy, suppressing criticism of his Bharatiya Janata Party and trying to impose Hindu nationalism across the country. A report by Human Rights Watch last year warned that Indian states ruled by his right-wing party have had increased incidents of discrimination and abuse against Muslims, including the illegal bulldozing of Muslim homes and businesses. Several international human rights groups had expressed concern over Modi’s state visit, particularly given that President Joe Biden has been outspoken about the importance of democracy prevailing over autocracy.
Sabrina Siddiqui was one of only two reporters called on at the news conference with Biden and Modi — one that was shorter than Biden’s previous news conferences with state leaders. Sabrina Siddiqui first asked President Joe Biden about his comments at a recent fundraiser where he had called Chinese President Xi Jinping a dictator, and about what his message was to those who argued his administration was overlooking the targeting of religious minorities and crackdown on dissent in India under Modi. She then asked a similar question of Prime Minister Modi. “India has long prided itself as the world’s largest democracy, but there are many human rights groups who say that your government has discriminated against religious minorities and sought to silence its critics,” Siddiqui said to the prime minister. “As you stand here in the East Room of the White House, where so many world leaders have made commitments to protecting democracy, what steps are you and your government willing to take to improve the rights of Muslims and other minorities in your country and to uphold free speech?” Prime Minister Modi expressed surprise at the question, emphasizing repeatedly in a lengthy response that democracy was in India’s “DNA.” “Democracy is our spirit. Democracy runs in our veins,” Modi said. “We have always proved that democracy can deliver, and when I say deliver, this is regardless of caste, creed, religion, gender. There is absolutely no space for discrimination.”
As per the review of posts on Twitter, the harassment of Siddiqui began shortly after clips of the news conference surfaced. Many hailed Modi’s answer as satisfactory, while hurling insults — or worse — at Siddiqui. The longtime political reporter has since changed her Twitter account settings to private, and she directed questions to the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. Sabrina Siddiqui is a respected journalist known for her integrity and unbiased reporting,” the Wall Street Journal said in a statement. “This harassment of our reporter is unacceptable, and we strongly condemn it.” The harassment also prompted a slew of statements of support from several professional organizations, including the White House Correspondents’ Association, the Dow Jones news guild, the Committee to Project Journalists and the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA). Tamara Keith, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, called the harassment unacceptable and said the organization stood by Siddiqui and the questions she chose to ask. “In a democracy, journalists shouldn’t be targeted simply for doing their jobs and asking questions that need to be asked,” Keith said in a statement Tuesday.The White House Correspondents’ Association says the reporter has been “subjected to intense online harassment,” with people wanting to know the motive for the question and asking about her religion and heritage.
Before becoming prime minister, Mr Modi had been denied a U.S. visa for several years since 2005 even his diplomatic visa was revoked over “severe violations of religious freedom after Gujarat 2002 Muslim pogrom. Since becoming prime minister in 2014, he has been criticized for his Hindu nationalist policies that are said to discriminate against Muslims, as well as for crackdowns on press freedom. India ranks poorly in terms of media freedom, with Reporters Without Borders putting the country at 161st out of 180 countries. The media watchdog has said journalists there are exposed to violence and that members of the Hindu far right “wage all-out online attacks” on anyone with opposing views. The attacks often are directed at women, with personal details shared online that put the reporters’ safety at greater risk, the watchdog says.
The harassment facing Sabrina Siddiqui underscores global press freedom trends. Reports show that female journalists face disproportionate harassment online as a result of their coverage. In one survey, 73% of journalists identifying as women said they experienced online violence in the course of their work. Online harassment is the new frontline for journalists’ safety, with female journalists disproportionately confronted by harassment that threatens physical harm, according to a newly published report. The report, based on a global survey of more than 700 journalists who identify as female, found 73% had experienced some form of online violence, with threats of physical or sexual violence most common. The findings and the impact harassment has on journalists were discussed during a panel on “Online Violence: The New Front Line for Women Journalists,” hosted by UNESCO and the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) earlier this month. “More than just damaging individual journalists, online violence also has a chilling effect on journalism more broadly and freedom of expression, along with the diversity in public debate,” Julie Posetti, global director of research at ICFJ and co-author of the report, said during the panel.
Online harassment has ramped up in recent years, with women—including female journalists—most often bearing the brunt of attacks. The harassment can lead journalists to self-censor, remove themselves from online platforms, sometimes permanently, or even lead to women quitting journalism altogether. The online misogynistic abuse and threats of sexualized violence and insults, women journalists are targeted by disinformation campaigns that try to undermine their credibility and damage their reputation, including through false accusations of professional misconduct or attempts to smear their character, the joint ICFJ-UNESCO report found. These journalists also were found to be more at risk of privacy and security threats such as hacking, being featured in doctored images or photos that are then shared online, or doxing—where information like addresses is shared online. By sharing details online like addresses, attackers increase the risk of a physical attack, the panel said.
Online threats aren’t just directed at the journalists. Of the 714 respondents to the survey, 13% said threats of violence also were made against those close to them. Award-winning Finnish journalist Jessikka Aro is well aware of the pressure from online harassment. Aro, who works for the Finnish national broadcaster Yle, was subjected to an intense online harassment campaign after reporting on Russian troll factories in 2014. Harassers spread false stories about her in the Russian media, accused her of abusing drugs or having mental health issues and shared her personal details online. Soon after, the journalist started to receive threatening phone calls and messages as well as death threats. “It’s targeting me with disinformation and defamation to the anger of disillusioned readers and viewers of these fake news stories,” said Aro, who in 2020 received the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Courage in Journalism award. “They get the wrong impression. They believe these lies and then they themselves attack me.” Aro said she was attacked for taking the perpetrators to court, and that “mafia-like” attacks extended to the witnesses, police, prosecutors and judges.
“They aren’t just some kind of abstract threat to people’s freedom of speech or freedom to receive information, but they’re also threats to individual reporters and people like me,” Aro said. Aro continues to report on Russian trolls, saying it makes others less susceptible to the disinformation, and that she is driven by a strong sense of “responsibility to my audiences and to my readers.” Among recommendations in its report, the ICFJ and UNESCO suggested that countries should ensure laws and rights used to protect female journalists offline are also applied to cases of digital attacks. It added that countries could better protect female journalists by collecting data on incidents, and publicly and systematically condemning attacks. Companies including Facebook and Twitter should ensure that complaints of harassment and abuse are dealt with quickly and transparently, the report said, adding that news organizations need to provide better support and training regarding online safety.
