The Alliance For Media Freedom, a cross-media advocacy and action group, on December 3, 2018, issued a statement condemning the illegal detention and harassment of two Tamil Nadu journalists by the police. The journalists were accused of aiding two foreign nationals who allegedly videographed sensitive installation at the Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL), at Manavalakurichi near Kanyakumari.

What happened?

On November 28, Manavalakurichi police received a complaint from Rajesh Raman Nair, the Chief Manager (Security) of the IREL, against two French nationals, Arthur Ronald Rene and Jules Daimen, and a Catholic priest Rev. Fr. Hildas, claiming they trespassed into the high-security installation and took videos.

The next day, a case was registered against the trio under various sections for criminal trespass, entry into restricted area, and violating visa conditions. The French nationals were accredited journalists who were reporting on mining violations.

According to the police, the foreign journalists landed in New Delhi on November 11 and came to Kanyakumari for documenting beach sand mining. They got in touch with the two Indian journalists D. Anandhkumar and M. Sriram and all of them reached Kanyakumari on November 23. The French nationals visited the IREL facility with Fr. Hildas on November 26. According to Mr. Anandhkumar, the French journalists returned to Paris via Thiruvananthapuram and Mumbai on November 27.

Both Mr. Anandhkumar and Mr. Sriram claim they didn't accompany the trio to IREL. “Despite the resistance from the security personnel, the team confronted them and videographed the sensitive installation after trespassing into the prohibited zone. Since the foreign nationals have violated the visa conditions, they have been booked and the priest was faulted for having assisted them," N. Sreenath, Superintendent of Police, Kanniyakumari district had told The Hindu.

Detention of Indian journalists

The police questioned Mr. Anandhkumar and Mr. Sriram for two days. While the police claim they were neither booked nor detained, the reporters had another version. According to Mr. Anandhkumar, they were asked by Kanyakumari Deputy Superintendent of Police to give a statement.

On November 28, when they reached the DSP office, an enquiry took place with representatives of the Intelligence Bureau, State Intelligence, Q Branch, CID and other agencies present, and with the DSP as the investigating officer. The journalists claim they were asked to sign a statement and were then locked up in a hotel with their mobile phones taken away. They were taken to the Kanyakumari police station and brought back to the hotel room and spent the night there along with four policemen. The next day, they were taken to the DSP office and allowed access to a lawyer after insisting they wanted one.

Union Minister calls journalists "spies"

In the meantime, while addressing mediapersons on November 28, Union Minister and Kanyakumari MP Pon. Radhakrishnan claimed "spies" had videographed sensitive installations in Kanyakumari and they came "via sea".

The journalists had arrived by air and the FIR mentions the French nationals were journalists. Though they had visa, it is not clear if they had permission to carry out journalistic activities. The Minister also linked the issue with the resistance from local residents for the proposed Colachel Port project, as they fear loss of livelihood if the project is implemented.

Illegal beach sand mining

The statement released by the Alliance For Media Freedom said the French journalists were "enquiring about illegal beach sand mining in the State and the consequent threats to the safety of journalists investigating and reporting on this." The Indian journalists were providing "professional facilitation and assistance" to them.

The Hindu had published a report on illegal beach sand mining thriving in the southern coast of Tamil Nadu.

The reporters also claimed they were forced by the Kanyakumari police not to reveal to the other agencies that the foreign journalists were enquiring about beach sand mining.