NewsClick raids: NYT says it would be deeply troubling if its story was used to silence journalists

Days after the Delhi Police raided NewsClick and several dozen journalists associated with the news webiste, The New York Times claimed that any government using its reporting to silence journalists would be deeply troubling.

“Independent journalism follows the facts where they lead,” a spokesperson for The New York Times told Scroll. “We published a thoroughly reported story showing the network’s ties to Chinese interests. We would find it deeply troubling and unacceptable if any government were to use our reporting as an excuse to silence journalists.”

The statement came in response to an article on Scroll by Kavita Krishnan. The activist had been approached by The New York Times to comment on the allegations against NewsClick for its report that was published on August 5, but she declined. Krishnan said that she refused to give a quote as she feared that the story would fuel the ongoing persecution of NewsClick journalists. Now it is clear that the “regime is using NYT’s story to equate journalism with terrorism”, she noted in her article and questioned why the newspaper did not challenge the “misuse of its story”.

In its report, the Times claimed that NewsClick had received funds from a network centred around American tech millionaire Neville Roy Singham to spread “Chinese propaganda” around the world. It added that Singham worked closely with the “Chinese government media machine”...

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