Controversy
Grows: Reax1 | Daily
Times Report
Indian
MEA Attacks South Asia Tribune: It's Scandalous Harassment,
says Editor
Special
SAT Report
WASHINGTON,
February 28: The Indian Government, in an official statement issued
in New Delhi on Monday, accused the South Asia Tribune
of publishing "absolutely fictitious" reports about
Indian policies on a variety of issues but the South Asia
Tribune immediately condemned the Indian move saying it was
uncalled for harassment and scandalous intimidation.
"It
has been noted that a person filing as Arun Rajnath for the South-Asia
Tribune has been using quotations and attributing them to
the foreign secretary, official spokesman, MEA (ministry of external
affairs) officials, etc," Ministry Spokesman Navtej Sarna
said in a statement.
It
was for the first time that the Indian Ministry had officially
attacked the South Asia Tribune for publishing reports
from New Delhi. The Government of General Pervez Musharraf in
Pakistan has constantly been harassing the newspaper, the family
members of the Editor and has blocked the web site inside Pakistan.
The US State Department's Human Rights Report issued on Monday,
Feb 28, also mentioned the harassment of the SAT by the Pakistan
Government.
On
February 24, the SAT correspondent in New Delhi, Arun Kumar Rajnath,
was "summoned" to the Ministry of External Affairs and
two senior officials, including the Spokesman Navtej Sarna, practically
gave him a dressing down invoking the infamous "national
interest" argument.
Sarna
on Monday said in his statement: "It is clarified that these
quotations are absolutely fictitious. No quotations contained
in Mr. Rajnath's stories should be taken as accurate unless they
are corroborated by official MEA statements or press briefings."
The
statement, however, did not mention any specific quotations, the
Indo-Asian News Service, reporting his statement commented.
In
Washington the South Asia Tribune (SAT) rejected as uncalled
for harassment and intimidation, the official statement of the
Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesman, Navtej Sarna,
issued in New Delhi on Monday, in which he has tried to cast doubts
on the professional competence and integrity of SAT and its New
Delhi Correspondent, Mr. Arun Kumar Rajnath.
South
Asia Tribune Editor, Mr. Shaheen Sehbai, issued the following
rejoinder in Washington on Monday, February 28, 2005:
“I have seen the official
statement issued by Spokesman Navtej Sarna about reports filed
for SAT by Correspondent Arun Kumar Rajnath from New Delhi. The
statement does not mention any specific “misquoted statements”,
which should be obligatory, but tries to cast doubts about the
professionalism and integrity of the correspondent in vague and
generalized demeaning terms. This is highly unethical and unprofessional
and is tantamount to harassment of the journalist. It seems to
be a self-serving and scandalous intimidation of an enterprising
journalist by a Government which should be committed to complete
freedom of the Press.
“I
also received a call some days back from Mr Rahul Chabbra of MEA
in New Delhi following which Correspondent Rajnath was “summoned”
to meet Mr. Chabbra in the MEA on February 24, 2005. He later
reported to me that he was taken to Spokesman Navtej Sarna and
both these officials tried to lecture him on the Indian “national
interest”.
"It
was pure and simple harassment. Mr. Sarna told him that his stories
in SAT were being picked up by Pakistani and Bangladeshi newspapers.
He was told: “The subject of Nepal is very sensitive. We
all work in the national interest in different capacities. Your
newspaper is web based that is why it is in the easy reach of
everyone. Whatever quotes and information you give in your stories,
are used by others which is not in the (Indian) national interest.”
“He was also told that if
he insisted on writing such stories, “you should show them
to me first or to Under Secretary Vipul, because this is a matter
of national security.” He was threatened that if he continued
writing, “we will first write to your Editor with our denial,
and if you still continue, we will write to the Indian Embassy
in the US and they would take care of everything.” If this
is not intimidation, what else would be?.
“I
strongly condemn this behavior by senior officials of the MEA.
Arun Rajnath is a reliable, highly professional and a well informed
journalist, with competent sources in the MEA and Indian Government.
He has filed almost 100 reports for the South Asia Tribune
in the last few months, most of which were breaking news and highly
informative.
“He was the first journalist
to report that India had suspended all military assistance to
Nepal after the King of Nepal took over powers in January, 2005.
This report was published in the SAT on February 6, 2005 after
Mr. Rajnath talked on the phone to the Indian Foreign Secretary.
His report was confirmed by the MEA three weeks later.
“In addition to many other
stories and analyses which Mr Rajnath wrote, his best work was
before the elections last year when he consistently predicted
that the Vajpayee Government would face a defeat. He was probably
one of the few Indian journalists making that prediction.”
“The
South Asia Tribune commends his work. We condemn the
attitude of the MEA and the Spokesman. We urge all journalist
organizations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists
and Reports Sans Frontieres, to take a note of this official harassment
by the Indian Government.
“We
fully stand by the stories filed by Mr. Rajnath. We urge the MEA
and its spokesman to immediately approve the pending application
of Mr Rajnath for accreditation to the MEA and respond to all
his questions in a professional and ethical manner, instead of
hurling vague accusations in the media.”
