Indian television news channels portrayed protests against the revision of voter lists in Delhi as a security threat and a failed political mobilisation on Saturday, largely overlooking the detention of journalists covering the demonstrations, reports Scroll.
Republic TV branded the protests organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and Left student groups a “CJP Flop Show” around 4:30pm, despite reports circulating for hours that police had detained more than a dozen journalists, including three from Scroll, while they covered the crackdown on protesters.
Across Hindi and English news channels, coverage largely centred on police deployment, barricades and the authorities’ account of events. Several broadcasters repeatedly used the Hindi word “araajakta”, meaning anarchy, to characterise the demonstrations against the Election Commission’s special intensive revision (SIR) of voter lists.
NDTV India highlighted the deployment of 20,000 personnel, 35 temporary jails, seven layers of barricades and 300 CCTV cameras. Its broadcast also labelled more than 600 people in custody as “criminals”, without explaining whether they had criminal records.
ABP News reported that 1,500 people had been detained across Delhi but paired the figure with a headline questioning whether the CJP protest had failed. The channel also ran headlines asking whether the demonstrations reflected anger or “the spirit of anarchy”.
Aaj Tak, India Today, Republic Bharat and Republic TV aired a news conference by former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who defended the Election Commission’s revision exercise as necessary to remove “illegal immigrants” and criticised what he described as anarchy.
Meanwhile, reporters from independent newsrooms alleged that police had tightened restrictions on their access to protest sites in Central Delhi, despite allowing television crews to cover events around Jantar Mantar.
Scroll reporters Vaishnavi Rathore and Kritika Pant were stopped at a checkpoint in South Delhi, about 5km from Jantar Mantar, and asked to show Press Information Bureau-issued cards.
“When I tried telling the police officer that I was from a digital newsroom, he argued, ‘Anybody can start a media house like this. Why should I believe you?’” Rathore said, noting that she had not faced similar treatment while covering protests in July.
Another Scroll reporter, Ayush Tiwari, said police detained him despite his showing them his press card. An officer told him, “Everybody claims to be a journalist these days.”
Raghav Kakkar, also from Scroll, said journalists carrying phones faced greater suspicion than those equipped with cameras.
“In my six years as a journalist in Delhi, I have covered the citizenship protests, the farmers’ protest and many other protests. But today was the first time that I was asked if I had a Press Information Bureau card,” he said.