White House accused of discriminating in opposition to journalist Simon Ateba

The United States, the self-proclaimed flag bearer of press freedom, loves preaching to different international locations about media rights and journalistic freedom whereas neglecting to comply with these rules in their very own nation. In a heated change with Today News Africa’s White House correspondent Simon Ateba on June 26 (native time), US Press Secretary Katherine Jean-Pierre (KJP) was known as for his or her hypocrisy. Ateba accused the White House of deleting his heated argument with the US press secretary about alleged discrimination in opposition to him on function. 

Prior to the argument between journalist Simon Ateba and the US press secretary, the latter ‘condemned’ the alleged ‘harassment’ of Wall Street Journal (WSJ) White House correspondent Sabrina Siddiqui, who confronted backlash for asking a propaganda-filled query in an effort to nook PM Modi throughout his official state go to to the US. Siddiqui questioned PM Modi in an try to strengthen the distorted narrative that Muslims are “under attack in India.”

“So I just want to just reiterate a little bit what John (Kirby) said, is that we’re certainly here, at the White House, under this administration, we’re committed to the freedom of the press, which is, which is why we had the press conference last week,” the US press secretary stated.

KJP continued, “So just want to remind folks that’s why we had the press conference last week, And just to also just repeat what you just all heard from my colleague, We certainly condemn any efforts of intimidation or harassment of a journalist or any journalist that is just trying to do their job. And so, I just want to..”

This is when KJP was interrupted by journalist Simon Ateba who known as out the White House’s blatant hypocrisy as KJP was condemning the so-called harassment of Sabrina Siddiqui whereas the White House has been ignoring Simon Ateba for over 9 months. 

“So are you going to take questions from me? Are you going to take questions from me because you’ve been discriminating against me for the past nine months.,” Ateba requested. 

Instead of answering his query, the US press secretary stated that if Simon Ateba continues to talk like that, she would finish the press briefing. She additional claimed that Ateba was being “incredibly rude” whereas the journalist stated that he needed the White House to permit him to do his job and ask questions. KJP endured in making an attempt to not let Simon Ateba make his level whereas minutes earlier than she was speaking about press freedom, advocating for a propagandist within the garb of a journalist.

The White House edited out Ateba’s heated change with Katherine Jean-Pierre; nevertheless, following public outrage over the White House’s blatant try to limit press freedom and discriminate in opposition to a journalist, the portion of Ateba-KJP interplay was restored. The White House blamed ‘technical glitch’ for removing of the clip.

In a protracted tweet, Simon Ateba slammed the White House for discriminating in opposition to a black journalist and others he accused of making an attempt to malign and oust him from the White House. He said that the story of his discrimination will final fifty years from now.

When a journalist is masking the @WhiteHouse and the WH and the @PressSec are discriminating in opposition to him, what do you do? Do you facet with the WH as @Mediaite did yesterday? Do you name him a ‘horrible particular person’ as @sunny Hostin did on @TheView? Do you attempt to malign him as… pic.twitter.com/IRZTWZRKMb

— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) June 27, 2023

While the Biden administration defended journalist Sabrina Siddiqui for trying to undermine the India-US relationship throughout President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s joint press convention on the White House, it refuses to take questions from journalists who they dislike or discover important of their insurance policies. 

This blatant show of hypocrisy comes after ‘journalist’ Sabrina Siddiqui acquired a befitting response from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who on June 22 was addressing a joint press convention together with President Biden. PM Modi’s response got here as Siddiqui accused his authorities of discriminating in opposition to Muslims and making an attempt to silence his critics.

“India has long prided itself as the world’s largest democracy, but there are many human rights groups who say that your government has discriminated against religious minorities and sought to silence its critics. As you stand here in the East Room of the White House, where so many world leaders have made commitments to protecting democracy, what steps are you and your government willing to take to protect the rights of Muslims and other minorities and to uphold free speech?” Siddiqui questioned. 

Siddiqui’s try at cornering PM Modi over alleged discrimination in opposition to Muslims in India, nevertheless, was met with a somewhat befitting response from the Indian Prime Minister. 

“I am surprised that you are saying that ‘people say’ India is a democracy. It is not about what people say, India is a democracy. And as President Biden said, both India and America have democracy in their DNA. Democracy is our spirit, democracy flows in our veins. We live democracy and our ancestors have put that into words in the shape of the Constitution and our government runs on the basis of the Constitution which is based on the basic democratic values,” PM Modi stated.

This sparked on-line criticism of Siddiqui, which was exacerbated when Alt News co-founder tried to go her off as an ‘Indian’ since she is the great-great-granddaughter of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, who was among the many earliest proponents of the two-nation concept. It is necessary to notice that this very two-nation concept laid the inspiration for the demand for the creation of a separate Islamic nation, Pakistan, and the bloodshed that ensued. 

While the White House got here to Sabrina Siddiqui’s defence whilst they discriminate in opposition to journalists like Simon Ateba, OpIndia reported concerning the 5 events the place the US President himself was hostile to the media.