Delhi HC Order was a Relief for NewsClick, But Ex-Employees Still Grappling with Unemployment, Stigma and Uncertainty |
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New Delhi: “Having spent almost five years at NewsClick, I found myself leaving the organisation without any compensation. I had three months’ salary pending. I was labelled as ‘anti-national’, and no one was willing to hire me. Wherever I went, people were more keen on hearing tales about the raids rather than addressing my problems. My life was ruined, and it remains so to this day.”
This is the ordeal narrated to The Wire Hindi by a former NewsClick employee whose home was raided by the Delhi Police around 6 AM on October 3, 2023. During the raid, the police seized the phone and laptop and asked questions about the organisation’s funding and reporting.
A recent Delhi high court ruling on NewsClick’s funding has put the organisation back in the limelight. The court gave a clean chit to the organisation in the money laundering case, while also reprimanding the central agency – the Enforcement Directorate (ED) – for a “gross abuse of law.”
Justice Neena Bansal Krishna of the Delhi high court delivered the verdict on May 29, 2024. The order was uploaded on June 10.
The court quashed the FIR filed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and the subsequent proceedings initiated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), stating that the ongoing action was not only malicious but also a blatant abuse of power directed against the petitioners’ independent and impartial journalism. The high court dismissed the ED’s claims as “completely false and baseless”.
The allegations against NewsClick included violating Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) rules and other laws brought up by the ED and EOW. Meanwhile, a separate case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA against the organisation remains pending in court, regarding which the Delhi Police had conducted raids on October 3, 2023. They targeted NewsClick’s offices, homes of over 70 journalists affiliated with the organisation, former employees and staff members, as well as the homes of approximately 100 individuals who had participated in the organisation’s programs.
The case in which NewsClick has currently secured relief from the high court was registered nearly six years ago.
The legal importance of this verdict – after years of waiting – is immense, but if one looks at it from a human perspective, the adage “better late than never” doesn’t really fit. One might perhaps imagine how much NewsClick has changed as an institution over these years, but it is hard to fathom just how much those years have made life a struggle for the people who worked there.
As of February 2024, NewsClick had about 100 employees. Most of them were staff members and journalists who depended solely on their salaries from the organisation. A lot of them came from lower-middle-class backgrounds from various states, and were the sole breadwinners for their families.
The organisation also had a lot of young employees who were the first in their families to step out of their hometowns to make a living. Besides the financial hardship from losing their jobs, they have also endured mental stress from the raids and have had to face suspicious glances from others being labelled as ‘anti-nationals’ in the public eye.
While working on this report, this scribe discovered that approximately 80 percent of the employees who lost their jobs at NewsClick following the raids have yet to secure permanent employment.
How did it all begin?
The case reportedly originated in August 2020, when the EOW of the Delhi Police registered an FIR under Sections 406 (criminal breach........