“Is showing the truth a crime?” UP police file cases against journalist over mosque demolition reporting
Lucknow: Police in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh have registered criminal cases against journalist Pooja Mathur over her reporting on the demolition of a historic mosque, raising fresh concerns over police action against journalists who question authorities over the destruction of Muslim religious sites.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the cases relate to Mathur’s reporting and social media posts following the September 5 demolition of the Saharanpur Collectorate Mosque, which Muslims say dated to 1911.
In one case, police objected to a September 7 post on an X account bearing Mathur’s name, which stated that religious objects, books and clothes belonging to the mosque’s imam had been removed along with the debris after the demolition. Police described the post as objectionable and registered an FIR.
A separate case was filed over Mathur’s reporting for the YouTube channel Red Chilli Live, with police objecting to both the title and content of the report.
Mathur said she learned about the police action through a newspaper and defended her work as journalism based on what she had witnessed at the site and accounts she had gathered from local residents.
“Is showing the truth a crime?” she asked.
Mathur said criminalizing journalists for documenting such actions could discourage scrutiny of those exercising state power.
“If a journalist has to pay the price for showing the truth and asking questions in the form of an FIR, then who will raise the voice of the common people?” she said.
She said she would continue reporting despite the cases.
The cases add a press freedom dimension to an already contentious demolition that has been condemned by Muslim leaders and opposition politicians, who have described it as another assault on Muslim religious spaces under the Hindutva BJP government in Uttar Pradesh.
