18 October,2026 08:14 AM IST | Mumbai | Akshita Maheshwari
Journalists allege that some of them were assaulted while others had their phones snatched. PICS/PTI
The national capital has erupted with protests. In an unprecedented move, the Delhi Police detained over 7000 protestors in a single day on October 10. Reporters Without Borders reported that at least 43 journalists have been detained between October 10 and 11. Out of the 43, at least 25 belonged to independent media houses or were freelance journalists. Notably, some claim that their phones were seized, while others allege assault.
"More than independent journalists, it felt like they wanted to detain anyone with a phone," says Ayush Tiwari from The Scroll, who was detained on October 10 while he was reporting in New Delhi.
Swati Chopra from The Quint was detained on October 11 from Shivaji Park. PIC/SHADAB KHAN
The last time protests had taken over Jantar Mantar in July over exam paper leaks, no one had expected it to reach the scale it did. On July 27, Sunday mid-day covered the crucial role of citizen journalists, who stepped on the ground with nothing but a phone in hand and the Internet as their platform of choice to cover what pro-government media wouldn't show them.
This time around for "Jantar Mantar 2.0" - as protestors demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in electoral rolls - there's a very clear precedent for just how much a small-but-mighty phone can capture.
Astha Savyasachi and Ayush Tiwari
"This is absolutely unprecedented. I haven't heard of detention of journalists at this scale ever," says Anuj Nakade, lawyer and independent journalist. The large-scale crackdown on journalists has also drawn condemnation from international human rights bodies, including the United Nations Human Rights Commission and global media watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists.
On October 11, Swati Chopra reached Shivaji Park, Dadar, around 3 pm to cover Mumbai's anti-CEC protests, alongside cameraperson Mohit Manwani. Chopra is the Mumbai editor at The Quint, an independent news platform, and has been a reporter for 19 years.
Sreenivasan Jain
Slowly, she made her way through the crowd, until she was in the thick of it. "I was bang in the centre with the protestors. There was a girl who had just been pushed into the bus and she was falling. She wanted to come out, and I just gave her my hand. That's when a policeman yelled at me, âHaath kyu pakda [Why'd you hold her hand]? You were trying to get her out.'"
"The cop started pushing me into the bus. I told them that I am from the press, and they cannot detain me. They asked me for my badge, and I showed it to them. They paid no heed. A senior cop said, âLeke jao isko [Take her]'," Chopra recalls.
Chopra and her cameraperson Manwani were pushed into the bus against their will. "There were men all around me, literally pushed against my body because there was no space. I had to give in," she says.
The duo were taken to Tardeo police station, "even though Dadar police station was right there," she says. They got to the police station around 5.30 pm. "They had separate rooms for men and women. I wanted to stay with my cameraperson, so I chose to sit in the male room. They gave us water. Around 6.30 pm, they told the ladies that they could leave. I continued to stay with my cameraperson. We thought, maybe if I stay here, it'll create pressure for them to release the men too."
They were let go around 7.30 pm. "I have just never seen this happen. I shoved my press card in their faces and yet they didn't care. Me doing my job came in their way," she says.
"Detaining journalists who are simply trying to do their job is undemocratic. By detaining me and my cameraperson, the police prevented us from documenting what was unfolding on the ground. We missed out on everything that happened later. The press must be able to report without the fear of being detained. This is not just an attack on press freedom, but also on the public's right to know," Chopra says.
Tiwari, who reports for The Scroll, was detained on October 10 in Delhi. "I heard an officer say, âIsko uthao," he says, "I was very wearing my press ID. I showed it to him, and he said, âAaj kal toh sabhi media se hai [Nowadays, everyone is from the media]'," Tiwari says.
He found that there was extra surveillance on "phone waalas". "If they saw someone with heavy equipment or a camera - those journalists were fine. But as soon as they would see someone recording with a phone, the bells would go off. Journalists are even being asked for PIB [Press Information Bureau] cards now, which is nonsense."
Tiwari also observed that reporters who got closer to the police were at higher risk of getting picked up. "Now they're forming chains around detainees when they pick them up, so I have no way of capturing it without getting close," he says.
"Not that this will affect my reporting, but the fear has been planted. Maybe next time, I'll think that I should stand a little further away." Journalist Astha Savyasachi, who works at independent platform Newslaundry, along with her colleagues Ashwine Kumar Singh and Anmol Pritam, was detained in Delhi last Saturday.
Savyasachi says, "When we went there, we simply asked the policemen why they had detained a journalist. They started manhandling Ashwine. When I intervened, three women police personnel came, dragged me, and shoved me into the bus. I fell on the floor."
Savyasachi says she was sexually harassed by another detainee on the bus. "There were 20-25 men in that bus, and there were only three women, including police personnel. So that also raises a question: Who should be held accountable? Who is responsible?" she asks.
While Savyasachi had managed to hide her phone, her colleagues were not as fortunate. She estimates that the detention lasted around two-and-a-half hours.
Savyasachi also alleges that journalists from legacy media outlets were treated differently at the barricades. "I didn't see any legacy media journalists being stopped. They were even sometimes allowed to cross the barricades, but we weren't." "A policeman on the street is deciding who's a journalist and who's not. I think that's really dangerous for journalism," she adds.
Lawyer and journalist Anuj Nakade explains a journalist's rights
A PIB card is an official press ID issued by the Press Information Bureau to recognised journalists residing in the national capital," explains lawyer and journalist Anuj Nakade. There are a limited number of scribes who get this accreditation. Nakade says, "It's definitely a sign of arrival for a journalist."
Anuj Nakade
Journalists allege that the police have been insisting on a PIB card. "Delhi Police's own advisory clarifies that journalists can wear IDs issued by their organisations and/or PIB/DIP cards," he notes.
Getting a PIB card is no easy task, Nakade says. "PIB's website's FAQ document prescribes three eligible categories: a correspondent with five years of experience; freelance journalists with 15 years of experience with a media house and five years of previously holding a PIB card; and foreign journalists with five years of experience with a valid J [journalist] visa," Nakade explains.
"Only the Delhi Police can tell us the intentions behind insisting on PIB cards. But the effect is simple, freelance journalists are affected the most. Not only do they need to have 15 years of experience to get accreditation but also within those five years, they must be holding a PIB card for five years," he says.
That would mean that for a freelance journalist to possess a PIB card today, they would have had to have 15 years working with a media house, which would make them at least 37 years old.
Nakade says that press freedom is protected by Article 19(1)(a) - Freedom of Speech and Expression of the Indian Constitution. "Journalists can ask police tough questions. They can ask, âWhy are you detaining a minor?' But they cannot get in the way of the police's work. Active participation in the protest would make you a protestor. But that still doesn't give police the right to detain you," Nakade says.
President of the Indian Federation of Working Journalists (IFWJ) Gopal Misra says, "IFWJ is awaiting details of 41 journalists being accused in false cases by the police. It also reveals why India is ranked 157th out of 180 countries in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index. Earlier, India was ranked 140 in 2014 to 159 amongst 180 countries. As part of its 76th anniversary celebrations this month, IFWJ will draw the country's attention to the issues related to press freedom and the working conditions of journalists in the country."
A senior Mumbai police officer told this paper, "No such incident took place. If a journalist was picked up, it is possible that the person was not wearing a press ID. Whenever detainees are brought into a police van or police station, they are asked to establish their identity and provide preliminary information, including the reason for their presence at the protest. If the person identifies themselves as a journalist, they are authorised to be there to cover the event."
Senior journalist Sreenivasan Jain said in a press conference, "The attempt is to particularly target younger journalists, digital media, those who are seen as independent and critical of the regime. Obviously some sort of instruction has gone out to go hard against that section⦠This is part of a systematic attempt to escalate this regime's campaign of repression against the press."
