India police search journalists' homes and offices in the country's latest raids

4/10/2023 7:12

        Indian police raided the offices of a news website that's under investigation for allegedly receiving funds from China, as well as the homes of several of its journalists, in what critics described as an attack on one of India's few remaining independent news outlets.
        
        The raids came months after Indian authorities searched the BBC’s New Delhi and Mumbai offices over accusations of tax evasion in February.
        
        NewsClick, founded in 2009, is known as a rare Indian news outlets that is willing to criticize Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
        
        A number of other news organizations have been investigated for financial impropriety under Modi's Hindu nationalist government, as international monitors warn that press freedom is eroding in India.
        
        Indian authorities registered a case against the site and its journalists on Aug. 17, weeks after a New York Times reportalleged that the website had received funds from an American millionaire who, the Times wrote, has funded the spread of "Chinese propaganda." NewsClick has denied the charges.