A day after the Income Tax Department raided the premises of media group Dainik Bhaskar in addition to Uttar Pradesh-based TV channel Bharat Samachar, the Editors Guild of India Friday expressed concern over authorities companies being “used as a coercive tool” to “suppress free and independent journalism”.
“This is all the more disturbing given the recent media reports on the wide spread surveillance of journalists and civil society activists using the Pegasus software,” it mentioned in a press release.
Dainik Bhaskar had carried a number of important reviews on the federal government’s dealing with of the pandemic. The Editors Guild mentioned it “brought to fore the gross mismanagement by government authorities and the immense loss of human lives”.