Delhi: Police demand details of those funding independent journalism

Many donors are worried about becoming the next targets of the government crackdown after Razorpay shared part of its payment information to AltNews, an independent fact-checking site, with the investigating authorities. One of the co-founders, Muhammad Zubair, is swamped with legal cases after his arrest last month.

New Delhi (AsiaNews) - The Indian payments company Razorpay has been accused by the public of violating the privacy data of its customers. In reality, the Rest of World website points out, the matter is a bit more complicated.

In June, the Delhi Police had arrested the journalist co-founder of the fact-checking site AltNews Muhammad Zubair for a 2018 tweet referring to the Hindu nationalists who came to power in 2014. Unlike major media outlets that are financed by advertising, AltNews has in recent years debunked various propaganda content of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ultra-nationalist Hindu party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), thanks to donations from readers.

Now the investigating authorities have, in a legal manner, obtained access to donors' payment data from Razorpay. The police said they would investigate the foreign donations, which AltNews denies ever having received.

Many people who made donations now fear that they will become the new targets of government repression. The civil society organisation Internet Freedom Foundation, for example, which relies on Razorpay, said it was exploring the possibility of using other 'payment platforms' so that donors would feel comfortable.

The payment company explained, however, that they had not shared all the data available to them with the authorities: 'Only a small part of the donor data was shared to assist in an ongoing investigation. We also defended AltNews' right to continue accepting payments until the investigation was completed, and once we got the go-ahead, we reactivated payments to them'.

According to lawyer Dharmendra Chatur, partner of the law firm Poovayya & Co., if Razorpay had not complied with the investigation order, it would have initiated 'unnecessary litigation' because under the Indian Code of Criminal Procedure, the police authorities have the power to demand information and documents for an ongoing crime.

It was only after Muhammed Zubair's arrest in June that further legal action was taken against the journalist and his fact-checking work. Today, a court in Uttar Pradesh will hold a hearing that could grant bail to the AltNews founder in a case dating back to last year in which Zubair had falsified a video on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict aired on the Sudarshan News television network. 

In another dispute, however, the Indian Supreme Court yesterday extended bail to the journalist, who in this case had been sued for reporting the tweets of some personalities spreading hate speech against Muslims.