 tough circumstances for this show. This show is intimately related to something that has been happening in India since October 3rd. I think, Zoe, if it's okay, I'm gonna relate the story a little bit and then you can come in and talk about the impact and what's been playing out. Well, on October 3rd, which is the day after Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, an important day in India, roughly 500 police officers went across the city of Delhi. These are the Delhi police officers, but it's important to bear in mind that in India, the Delhi police isn't just the police department of the city of Delhi, but is under the direct control of the home ministry of the government of India. The home minister of India is Amit Shah, very close ally of prime minister Narendra Modi. So Mr. Amit Shah's police department went across the city of Delhi, interrogated journalists, went into their homes, looked at their phones, looked at their computers, seized a number of computers and phones, not only in Delhi, but also in Mumbai, India's commercial capital, also in Hyderabad, journalists, researchers, people affiliated to, in any way, social justice schemes, their homes were raided. At the end of the day, when the dust settled, two people were arrested, Praveer Purkayasth, the editor and founder of NewsClick, NewsClick very closely working with people's dispatch. That's why I said this is a kindred, this is a story close to us. Also Amit Chakravati, who heads the Human Relations Department at NewsClick, both remain in remand. They've been held by the Delhi police on a first information report handed to the courts in Delhi. Now, we have read the first information report, the PDF of which is circulated pretty widely in India and has been reported on by other news outlets. The first information report to my mind appears sort of bizarre. It makes connections which is hard to sustain that Praveer Purkayasth, well-known engineer, a well-known science and technology advocate, the president of the Free Software Movement of India, founder and editor of NewsClick. Mr. Praveer Purkayasth is somehow involved in a deep conspiracy to, I don't know, it's very unclear from the FIR, the first information report exactly what this conspiracy is about. You see, there's a lot of words there. There's a lot of insinuations and connections. What is the precise conspiracy? And the reason I say this is that the journalists who were interrogated by the Delhi police who asked the following kinds of questions. Did you cover the protests at Shaheen Bagh and across India against the change of the citizenship law? Did you cover the farmers movements? Did you cover the Delhi riots that took place in Silampur and other parts of Delhi? Did you cover the COVID measures and COVID lockdown in India? Now, those are the questions asked of the journalists and it's interesting. Paranjay Guha Thakurta, one of the journalists loosely affiliated with NewsClick who was also rated, picked up, interrogated for eight, nine hours, when he came out of the interrogation, he said, look, these are the questions I was asked. Of course I covered the farmers protests. I mean, of course, because indeed, any self-respecting journalist who doesn't cover these issues is conducting a dereliction of duty. You have to cover the farmers movement. It's a major process of our times. There was Mr. Paranjay Guha Thakurta saying, ah, I covered it, of course I covered it. You have to cover these things. That's on the one side. They asked these questions quite aggressively. Did you do this? Did you do that? Scaring young journalists, telling them that their lives were under threat, that they could be arrested and so on. Intimidating people with questions basically that are, if you boil it down, did you do your job? Yes, I did my job. I covered things that were in the news. On the other hand, when you read the FIR, it doesn't actually talk much about the farmers movement or the Shaheen Bagh protests or the Delhi riots, doesn't talk much about India's COVID lockdowns, although there is a mention of COVID lockdowns and so on in the FIR. The FIR alleges that there's a conspiracy that includes the Communist Party of China. It's a very bizarre document and the discrepancy between what was asked of the journalists in interrogation and what is written in the FRI is puzzling. If I was the judge in this case, and to be quite honest, I don't even have a legal degree, but if I was a judge in this case, I would say there is no prima facie evidence for any of this. I mean, if the FIR is talking about a Chinese conspiracy, why are you asking the journalists about the farmers movement, about Shaheen Bagh and so on? Why don't you ask them about the Chinese conspiracy? If the problem is that you're not supposed to cover the farmers movement, why doesn't the FRI talk about that? The discrepancy between the two is puzzling and needs to be thought about. Well, Ruby Purkayas and Amit Chakraborty are under remand in the Delhi police's special cell. There have been several court discussions about whether the, in fact, the Delhi police wanted the remand to last for 15 days, not just seven days. That was fortunately denied by the judge. No clarification whether the remand will not be extended. And the reason why the remand might be extended, which is why this is chilling, is that the accusations in the first information report are based on not any law, but on the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967, an extremely draconian law that was put in place by the Indian government that effectively invalidates the right of the accused for exercising freedom of movement. Habeas Corpus is pretty much suspended by UAPA. It's a very dangerous law. Having booked people at least until the remand stage under UAPA, this puts a lot of pressure on the defense attorneys to be able to get their clients bail. There is no reason why journalists should be in prison for doing their job. But Zoe, this arrest and the raids, particularly on hundreds of people, this has occasioned a great backlash in India and abroad. Tell us a little bit about what you have been covering at People's Dispatch regarding this pushback. And of course, the statement that has been circulating in solidarity with the arrested journalists. Yes, well, I think that while this was an extremely chilling and shocking action and it continues to be, the response has been overwhelmingly in support of the news cook journalist really rejecting this atrocious attack on press freedom, on the right to freedom of expression, so many other kind of civil liberties which were undermined, not even to mention the irregularities that took place during the raids, the lack of not following due process, so many other elements. And I think what was really inspiring was that even while the raids were taking place at the press club of India in New Delhi, there was already a meeting of journalists, of concerned people who were gathering, trying to figure out what's the response to this, but all overwhelmingly saying that we must rally, we must mobilize against this. And the press club has held several rallies since then, press clubs and cities across India as well have held meetings and have had rallies of journalists, of people involved in the press to really say that, again, an attack against one is an attack against all. And I think that people are really understanding with the expansive nature of this attack is that it's no longer a time to say, we're gonna distance ourselves from these people because they're XYZ. It's clear that no one is really is safe from these attacks on press freedom and that it's so important to rally behind so that one isn't next in these sort of attacks. And so I think that's been really incredible to see all of the journalists across India rallying. There have been also protests in cities and university campuses organized by the Students' Federation of India, the Democratic Youth Federation of India as well, as well as many other mass movements that I have really understood that, again, not only is it an attack against press, but it's an attack on human rights, it's an attack on civil liberties. This is not an isolated attack and we know at People's Dispatch. And of course, NewsClick primarily has been covering these repressive crackdown on anyone, anyone who's in opposition to government policies, whether it be in the area of agriculture or workers' rights or rights of women. These are crucial issues and that the message that's being sent is that if you're going to speak about this, then you should expect that your house could get raided, that you could be brought in, that your family will be terrorized. And so I think that's why there's been such an outpouring of solidarity within India and internationally as well. Maybe the government wasn't expecting such a outpouring of solidarity. I mean, on one hand, also the news coverage from mainstream outlets, from BBC, from the New York Times itself has actually been quite sympathetic to NewsClick, pointing out the political motivation, the baselessness of these accusations and really what it represents is really undermining these fundamental rights and liberties. As you said, we've seen this incredible open letter of solidarity from over 300 journalists, writers, artists, political leaders, including Sinn Fein MP, Chris Hazard, Sevim Daglan from Germany. Just many, many names of people who understand that India may be a far off country to them, but that these attacks on press freedom, again, undermine all of our rights. I think as well as the brother of Julian Assange, Gabriel Shipton, who's been a stalwart in the fight against tax freedom of the press. So all of these elements are really important. I think that it's at moments like these where international solidarity is so important, both to show the people at NewsClick are colleagues that they're not alone, calling for the immediate release of Prabir and Amit, calling for their rights to be respected, rejecting these attacks, making sure that they feel that they're not alone, but also showing to the government that's taking forward these repressive acts that it won't be tolerated and that I think that it's an interesting place to be. For example, here in New York, we did a rally that was just outside the New York Times headquarters, the office, understanding the role that institutions like the New York Times play in furthering these attacks. Again, I said they covered the raid and they also mentioned that they were complicit in giving the evidence from which this whole raid was carried out on. So there's really something for everyone to do in rejecting these attacks. I encourage people to check out the letter that's on our website, People's Dispatch. Sign, organize a rally, rejecting these attacks on press freedom. Journalists are not neutral subjects in today's society we're not standing on the sidelines. We're active participants and the right to free press, the right to freedom of expression is such a fundamental one that really makes democracies. And I think in a lot of the statements that we've seen in response to the attacks, especially coming statements coming out of India, this idea of democracy and how to take care of this democracy, this young democracy, a country that's called the largest democracy in the world and how can these sort of attacks happen? And that NewsClick is actually a fundamental outlet that is actually promoting and protecting democracy. You know, it's true. I just want to make a personal note. NewsClick is now 14 years old. I was there at the very start of NewsClick in 2009 and worked in NewsClick in different ways right through the years. We moved from a very tiny little studio to the current studio, which the government had sealed this week. And then, you know, off and on, on and off, open the seal and so on. Very disturbing how this publication has been treated since the raids of 2021. Prabir Pulkastra has been my friend for over 30 years. It's a very disturbing situation. And I hope very much that, you know, this gets resolved in a way that does justice proud and not, you know, in any other direction. You're with, give the people what they want. We're brought to you by People's Dispatch. That's Zoe and Prashant. Prashant is not here today because Prashant was also interrogated in that sweep. And we are very cognizant of the fact that our dear Prashant is under the scanner of the Delhi police. And we hold him close in our hearts now and always, of course.