Investigators have raided a number of premises linked to the founders of an Indian TV news network in a move described by prominent journalists as an assault on press freedom.

Officers from the Central Bureau of Investigation searched a number of homes and offices on Monday morning linked to Prannoy Roy and his wife, Radhika, the founders of New Delhi Television (NDTV), one of India’s first private TV news networks.

The CBI said the couple were being investigated for “causing an alleged loss to [a] bank”. Cases have reportedly been registered against the Roys in connection to a 375m-rupee (£4.5m) default on a loan from the private bank ICICI. The holding company is already the subject of two inquiries by Indian tax and financial authorities.

NDTV and several senior Indian journalists said the investigation was part of a campaign of harassment against the network, considered one of India’s most influential television news outlets. NDTV is one of the few liberal-leaning voices in a media landscape increasingly dominated by stridently nationalist and strongly opinionated outlets such as Times Now and the recently launched Republic TV.

“They try to be pretty critical and objective,” said Sevanti Ninan, the editor of a media watchdog website, the Hoot. “NDTV are not fawning over the [Narendra] Modi government like many of the other networks.”

The network described the CBI raids as “concerted harassment … based on the same old endless false accusations”.

In a statement, it said: “NDTV and its promoters will fight tirelessly against this witch-hunt by multiple agencies. We will not succumb to these attempts to blatantly undermine democracy and free speech in India.”

It added: “We have one message to those who are trying to destroy the institutions of India and everything it stands for: we will fight for our country and overcome these forces.”

India’s information and broadcasting minister denied any involvement in the investigation. “This government doesn’t believe in interfering,” Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu said. “[The CBI] must have some information, that’s why they might have taken steps.”



Praveen Swami, an editor at the Indian Express newspaper, said the raids were “a defining moment”, comparing them to the 1975 “Emergency”, when the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, imposed censorship and reporting guidelines amid other restrictions.

Nidhi Razdan, an NDTV anchor, tweeted:

A message to those in the media who are still independent and do their job by fearlessly asking questions. We won't be intimidated https://t.co/sNC7pEPnOW — Nidhi Razdan (@RazdanNidhi) June 5, 2017

Another NDTV journalist, Sreenivasan Jain, tweeted:

Message is clear: any independent voices in media will be bullied and shut down. Black day. https://t.co/lKE93K29cp — Sreenivasan Jain (@SreenivasanJain) June 5, 2017

Ninan said the reactions were not allowing for the fact that there were cases against the Roys that were being investigate by a number of agencies”. But he added that it was “curious” the CBI had become involved.

The bureau can only investigate cases in response to specific requests from a private company, she said, and in this case, it was unclear why ICICI would raise an issue with a loan default to which it agreed at least six years ago.



The ICICI loans taken out by the Roys’ company had also previously been the target of scrutiny from parliamentary committees led by members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata party, Ninan added.

NDTV’s Hindi news channel was suspended from broadcasting for 24 hours in November after a report about security operations during a January 2016 attack by militants on an air force base in Pathankot, Punjab state. After an outcry, the government put the ban “on hold”. NDTV had been accused by the Modi government of revealing sensitive information.



India has a vibrant and diverse media environment but the watchdog group Freedom House ranks the country’s press as only “partly free”, citing onerous defamation laws and frequent physical threats and intimidation faced by journalists, particularly those who report in regional languages.

In Kashmir, the site of 27-year insurgency, several newspapers were suspended last year and social media was shut down for 30 days in April. Conflicts of interests are also an issue, with a number of channels wholly or partly owned by politicians, according to Freedom House.

Ninan said NDTV had closely investigated sectarian riots in Gujarat that occurred while Modi was its chief minister in 2002, and which human rights groups say his government ignored or abetted. As a prime ministerial candidate in 2014, Modi also avoided the network, she said.

