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Rana Ayyub, an independent journalist and defender of women’s human rights, has shared details of alleged online harassment she faced after her contact details were leaked on social media platform X.
Journalists and activists have long complained of harassment under India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose government has been accused of trying to silence critical reporting.
Ayyub, a fierce critic of Modi and his Hindu nationalist government, has been targeted by his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Eliciting details about the alleged harassment in an Instagram post on Sunday, the journalist claimed that she was targeted by “video calls, sexually explicit messages […] nudes, calls that won’t stop ending, OTPs from various banks” after a “rabid Hindu nationalist” posted her number on X.
“The comments below the tweet resemble a virtual lynch mob out to strip you of your dignity,” Ayyub said.
The journalist said she spent 11 months at a police station the day before recounting her ordeal, following which a first information report was filed.
Ayyub added that she was due to appear in court on Monday morning for a defamation case filed against her by a “Hindu nationalist organisation” over a 15-year-old article.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, while citing sources, said on Friday it was “highly concerned” after the investigative journalist’s number was “leaked online”, and she was followed and repeatedly questioned by local intelligence personnel on her four-day reporting trip in Manipur last month.
In her Sunday post, Ayyub claimed that cops and alleged Intelligence Bureau officials followed her “everywhere” when she had travelled to Manipur to report.
She alleged the personnel indulged in the “most extreme form of surveillance” and had “someone shadow me including to a washroom in a village”.
Ayyub rejected claims made by the “right-wing ecosystem” that she had moved to the United States. Recalling that she had been advised by her friends to leave the country or quit journalism, the journalist said she was “often tempted” to do so as she did not want to be a “martyr”.
“This is every single day of my life and the biggest casualty has been my journalism and my peace of mind,” Ayyub said, highlighting she was again taking medication for anxiety issues.
However, emphasising that journalism was not just a job for her but the “elixir of my life”, she said: “I live for the stories I report for the marginalised who must be represented but I am exhausted and I am trying […].
“Quitting was never, will never be a moral option and I will not till such time I retain my sanity,” the journalist asserted.
UN rights experts had urged the Indian government in 2022 to “end relentless misogynistic attacks” on Ayyub.
However, a month later, the Muslim journalist was prevented from flying to Europe to speak about the intimidation of journalists and rights in the world’s largest democracy.
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