From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Press Club of India (PCI) on Tuesday condemned the arrest of Muhammad Zubair, co-fonder of AltNews, a fact checking website, on Monday by Delhi Police for a tweet of 2018 for allegedly hurting the religious sentiments.
It said it is ironic that Zubair’s arrest comes on the day when PM Modi was associatgin himself with the noble declaration along with the world leaders by joining G7 and four other countries to protect free speech “online nd offline.”
The hasty arrest of Zubair shows the blatant violation of the country’s commitment on the global platform given by noe other than the Prime Minister himself, the PCI said.
Delhi Police on Tuesday sought his 5-day police remand. The Patiala House court reserved its order on the police plea.
The PCI noted thatThe Court later sent Zubair to 4-day custody. the fact-checking site AltNews was acting as an instrument to cut through the jungle of disinformation spread through fake news to create fissures in the society. “Constant vigilance is the price which we pay for being vibrant, diverse and largest democracy in the world and AltNews was fulfilling that role,” it said.
