Why action against media platform suspected of links with enemy nation isn’t assault on press freedom

Media organisations regularly condemn attacks on free speech in our country, as they should. But by expressing “deep concern over the ongoing targeted campaign against the news web portal Newsclick and its founders,” the Press Club of India, the Indian Women’s Press Corps, the Delhi Union of Journalists and the Press Association have erred grievously. For action against a media platform suspected of links with an enemy nation cannot be called an assault on press freedom. I am a member of the two of these bodies — the Press Club of India and the Press Association. Shockingly, the four organisations have resorted to whataboutery, “If the sources of funding for Newsclick are under scrutiny, the same transparency should extend to supporters and backers of various other portals aligned with the establishment. It is imperative for the interests of complete transparency that the sponsors and funding sources of all such portals be disclosed. Without such disclosure, the recent actions targeting Newsclick could rightly be characterized as a witch-hunt.” This is also how Amitabh Bachchan defended his own criminality in Deewar — ‘Pehle uske sign lekar aao…’ The drafters of the letter forgot Shashi Kapoor’s repartee to the whataboutery: ‘Doosron ke paap ginane se tumhare apne paap kam nahi ho sakte.’

The New York Times recently published a report after investigation and found “a lavishly funded influence campaign that defends China and pushes its propaganda. At the center is a charismatic American millionaire, Neville Roy Singham, who is known as a socialist benefactor of far-Left causes.”

What is less known, and is hidden amid a tangle of nonprofit groups and shell companies, is that Singham, who is based in Shanghai, works closely with the Chinese government media machine and is financing its propaganda worldwide, it added.

The report said that, as per corporate filings, “Singham’s network financed a news site, Newsclick, that sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points. ‘China’s history continues to inspire the working classes,’ one video said.”

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All this for a country that is the world’s biggest and most dangerous rogue state! It is a well-known fact that China supports other rogue states, terrorises its neighbors including India, shields global terrorists, ensnares smaller nations into a debt trap, and weaponises its businesses and supply chains. In the early days of Covid-19, it also ensured the export of the novel coronavirus all over the world; and it was assisted by its lackey, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Singham’s enterprise seems to be part of the unrestricted warfare that Beijing has waged against the US in particular and democracies in general for global hegemony. In a 1999 book, Unrestricted Warfare, two People’s Liberation Army colonels Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui argued that China should not fight a stronger enemy like the US with conventional military means; so, it should take recourse to non-military means.

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The two colonels went on to describe the “means and methods used to fight a non-military war, some of which already exist and some of which may exist in the future. Such means and methods include psychological warfare (spreading rumors to intimidate the enemy and break down his will); smuggling warfare (throwing markets into confusion and attacking economic order); media warfare (manipulating what people see and hear in order to lead public opinion along); drug warfare (obtaining sudden and huge illicit profits by spreading disaster in other countries); network warfare (venturing out in secret and concealing one’s identity in a type of warfare that is virtually impossible to guard against); technological warfare (creating monopolies by setting standards independently); fabrication warfare (presenting a counterfeit appearance of real strength before the eyes of the enemy); resources warfare (grabbing riches by plundering stores of resources); economic aid warfare (bestowing favor in the open and contriving to control matters in secret); cultural warfare (leading cultural trends along in order to assimilate those with different views); and international law warfare (seizing the earliest opportunity to set up regulations), etc.”

There is a mountain of evidence to suggest that the Chinese Communist Party is already fighting “a non-military war” all over the world on various fronts.

Notice the width of the gamut of actions that the two PLA colonels recommended. Also, notice the actions that the CCP has been supporting all along. Evidently, Singham orchestrates many of them in the Western countries—and perhaps also in India.

Newsclick has reportedly received funds from organisations linked with Singham. There is nothing wrong if the Indian agencies probe into the funding of Newsclick.

One may or may not be satisfied with the Narendra Modi government’s record in upholding free speech, but this doesn’t mean that its probe into the activities of a suspicious website should be trashed as an attack on the press.

Ravi Shanker Kapoor, a freelance journalist, is the author of ‘There Is No Such Thing As Hate Speech: A Case for Absolute Freedom of Expression’ (Bloomsbury, 2017). Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.

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