Investigative journalist Rana Ayyub has been exposed to “judicial harassment,” according to UN human rights experts, who have urged Indian authorities to “promptly” examine “relentless misogynistic and sectarian” assaults on her on social media.
Ayyub, a Washington Post columnist, has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of persecuting her for her critical reporting on the government. On Sunday, The Washington Post published a full-page ad in support of Ayyub, stating that “the free press in India is under siege.”
Ayyub has been “maliciously targeted with anonymous death and rape threats by organized groups online” for “holding power to account through her reporting,” according to Irene Khan, special rapporteur on the right to freedom of expression, and Mary Lawlor, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, in a statement released on Monday.
“The government’s lack of denunciation and adequate inquiry, along with the legal harassment it has imposed on Ms. Ayyub, has only helped to falsely legitimate the attacks and perpetrators, further endangering her safety,” according to the statement.
The UN declaration came just days after India’s Enforcement Directorate opened a money-laundering inquiry into the investigative journalist based in Mumbai’s financial district.
“The allegations brought against me will not bear any reasonable and honest scrutiny,” Ayyub said in a statement.
“The smear effort against me will not prevent me from continuing to do my job as a journalist, particularly raising vital topics and asking difficult questions, as is my responsibility as a journalist in a constitutional democracy.”
Last month, she was threatened with murder and raped online. A guy has been arrested in connection with the case by Mumbai police.
Hindu supremacists have filed many police complaints against her over her views on the recent hijab ban in Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Karnataka state (BJP).
However, India has slammed the UN statement, calling it “baseless and unwarranted.”
“Allegations of judicial harassment are unfounded and unjustified. “India defends the rule of law, but makes it clear that no one is above the law,” stated a tweet from India’s UN Geneva feed.
“We anticipate SRs [Special Rapporteurs] being objective and well-informed. It wrote, “Advancing a false story just tarnishes @UNGeneva’s reputation.”
According to the UN rapporteurs, far-right Hindu nationalist organizations have intensified their attacks and threats against Ayyub online.
“Ayyub’s bank account and other assets were frozen for the second time in six months in response to clearly unsubstantiated claims of money laundering and tax fraud, relating to her crowd-funding campaigns to provide relief to those afflicted by the pandemic,” they said.
Human rights experts from the United Nations wrote to the government in October about threats against Ayyub.
Ayyub has spoken out about the online harassment she has received. When Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat in 2002, she wrote the book The Gujarat Files, which looked into the riots there.
