43 journalists detained, several assaulted, while covering protests against CEC: CPJ

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The non-profit organisation said at least 39 journalists were detained in New Delhi, where the main protests broke out, over the course of two days, based on its review of news reports, direct interviews, and verified social media posts by editors, journalists and their newsrooms. | Photo Credit: The Hindu

More than three dozen journalists were temporarily detained, and in some cases assaulted, while covering protests against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over allegations of voter-list manipulation in Delhi, Ahmedabad and Pune on October 10, 2026, and October 11, 2026, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The non-profit organisation said at least 39 journalists were detained in New Delhi, where the main protests broke out, over the course of two days, based on its review of news reports, direct interviews, and verified social media posts by editors, journalists and their newsrooms.

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“Four more journalists were detained while covering solidarity protests in other cities, including Alt News correspondent Kinjal in Ahmedabad and Scroll’s Divya Aslesha in Pune on October 10. In Mumbai, police detained The Quint’s Swati Chopra and Mohit Manwani at Shivaji Park on October 11, while they covered a solidarity protest,” it said.

The CPJ said the police continued detaining journalists “even after Supreme Court justices won assurances from Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta on October 11 that lawyers, journalists, and other professionals would not be impeded in their professional duties.”

“Authorities also seized at least five phones, pressured at least one journalist to delete footage, and drove some to holding sites up to 65 kilometres (40 miles) away,” the report said. It said at least five journalists were struck by the police, according to their own accounts or their outlets’.

On October 10, 2026, journalist Rana Ayyub posted on X that the police threatened to detain her when she asked whether they were facilitating a man who was shouting abuse at protesters in their presence. She told CPJ that, despite knowing she was a journalist, the police “beat her with a lathi (baton), resulting in injuries that are still causing her pain.”

As per the report, the Delhi Police, on October 10, 2026, temporarily detained Scroll’s Ayush Tiwari and Shoaib Daniyal; Business Standard’s Anushka Bhardwaj; Newslaundry reporters Ashwine Kumar Singh, Astha Savyasachi and Anmol Pritam and intern Anshu; Reuters’ Saurabh Sharma; Navbharat Times’ Hritik Joshi and Rahul Charas; BOOM’s Jagriti Trisha; Shivang Shukla of Mo, India Today’s digital video platform; Molitics’ Amaan Rastogi; The Quint’s Sarthak Jaiswal; Reporter TV’s Roshni Rajan and Farza TM; independent journalists Shrishti Khanna and Prashant Pundir; No Noise Stories’ Vivek Gupta; and Alt News intern Agniva Ray.