‘Completely unacceptable’: US reacts to harassment of journalist who posed question to PM Modi

Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre echoed this stance, saying, “We certainly condemn any efforts of intimidation or harassment of a journalist or any journalist that is just trying to do their job.”

Sabrina Siddiqui, a journalist working with the Wall Street Journal, had faced criticism online, including from BJP leader Amit Malviya, for posing a question to PM Modi during his joint press address with US President Joe Biden on June 22 at the White House.

“Prime Minister Modi completely destroyed the motivated question on steps being taken to ‘protect’ rights of Muslims and other minorities,” Malviya wrote on Twitter.

Prime Minister Modi completely destroyed the motivated question on steps being taken to ‘protect’ rights of Muslims and other minorities. In his response he didn’t mention Muslims or any other denomination, spoke about Constitution, access to Govt resources based on eligibility… pic.twitter.com/mPdXPMZaoI

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) June 22, 2023

Following harassment on social media over her personal life and background, Siddiqui had shared photographs of her cheering for the Indian cricket team, writing, “Sometimes identities are more complex than they seem.”

Since some have chosen to make a point of my personal background, it feels only right to provide a fuller picture. Sometimes identities are more complex than they seem. pic.twitter.com/Huxbmm57q8

— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) June 24, 2023

The Wall Street Journal and the South Asian Journalists Association had also defended Siddiqui, with the former issuing a statement referring to Siddiqui as “a respected journalist known for her integrity and unbiased reporting.”

“This harassment of our reporter is unacceptable, and we strongly condemn it,” WSJ said.

“We want to express our continued support of our colleague @SabrinaSiddiqui who, like many South Asian and female journalists, is experiencing harassment for simply doing her job,” the South Asian Journalists Association said in a statement on Twitter.

During the press conference, Siddiqui had asked PM Modi: “There are many human rights groups who say your government has discriminated against religious minorities and sought to silence its critics… As you stand here in the East Room of the White House, where so many world leaders have made commitments to protecting democracy, what steps are you and your government willing to take to improve the rights of Muslims and other minorities in your country and to uphold free speech?” In response, PM Modi had said that “democracy is in our DNA”, and “there is absolutely no question of discrimination” regardless of “caste, creed, religion and gender”.

Question: I want to follow up on a different subject briefly.  At the question-and-answer event with the President and Prime Minister Modi, our colleague, Sabrina Siddiqui of the Wall Street Journal, asked a question of the Prime Minister.  And since that time, she has been subjected to some intense online harassment from people inside India.  Some of them are politicians; they have associations with the pro-Modi government.  And in part they’ve been targeting her because of her Muslim faith and questioning her own heritage.

Because this was supposed to be about democracy and — in some form — wanted to find out what is the White House reaction to the fact that a journalist posing a question to a democratic leader is getting that kind of pushback.

John Kirby:  We’re aware of the reports of that harassment.  It’s unacceptable.  And we absolutely condemn any harassment of journalists anywhere under any circumstances.  That’s just — that’s completely unacceptable.  And it’s antithetical to the very principles of democracy that — that — you’re right — were on display last week during the state visit.

Karine Jean-Pierre: So there’s one thing I just want to address really quickly, which I think is really important.  It goes to Kelly O’s question about Sabrina and what she has been dealing with since Thursday.

So I just want to just reiterate a little bit what John said — is that we’re certainly — here, at the White House, under this administration, we’re committed to the freedom of the press, which is — which is why we had the press conference last week.  So just want to remind folks that’s why we had the press conference last week.

And just to also just repeat what you just all heard from my colleague: We certainly condemn any efforts of intimidation or harassment of a journalist or any journalist that is just trying to do their job.  And so, I just want to —