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Coercive action against independent media houses that hold Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government to account, and which function in accordance with the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right to freedom of freedom of expression, has become a new normal in the Modi regime.

Over the last decade, numerous ‘raids’ have been conducted by police and investigative agencies controlled by the Union government against digital news and print media platforms, and even some TV channels. A clear pattern emerges in these cases: those who interrogate the powers-that-be are repeatedly acted against. Several journalists have been incarcerated by police, or detained and questioned, merely for performing their routine duty of reporting on events and policies of the government.

All of these ‘raids’, arrests and coercive legal actions against independent media houses amount to a severe assault against the freedom of the press. Their aim has been to create a chilling effect on the media fraternity.

In this context that we must view the Delhi High Court’s recent judgement quashing the Enforcement Directorate’s case against founding-editor of NewsClick, Prabir Purkayastha, and the money laundering charges slapped against him by the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police. The court’s observation that “not only are the present proceedings........

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