The centre on Tuesday told the parliament that it has no data on arrests of journalists across the country. This comes in the backdrop of international condemnation over the arrest of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, who has been booked in multiple cases over his old tweets.
TMC MP Mala Roy had posed questions to the centre in parliament regarding the arrests of journalist
Ms Roy had questioned:
“Will the Minister of HOME AFFAIRS be pleased to state:
(a) the total number of journalists arrested in the country since 2019 along with the details of all the individual charges against these journalists; and
(b) the total number of journalists currently facing prosecution?”
Nityanand Rai, the minister of state in union home ministry, responded to the question and said: “‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are State subjects under the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India and State Governments are responsible for prevention, detection and investigation of crimes and for prosecuting the criminals through their law enforcement agencies. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) does not maintain specific data with respect to arrest of journalists.”
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