The Indian Journalists’ Union (IJU) welcomed the Delhi High Court’s verdict quashing the FIR registered by the Delhi police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the NewsClick portal and its editor Prabir Purkayastha.

In a statement, IJU president Balwinder Singh Jammu, secretary-general D. Soma Sundar and vice-president Y. Narender Reddy said the verdict was a moral victory for everyone who advocated media freedom in the country. They termed it a tight slap to the governments attempting to suppress independent voices and critical journalism.

The IJU said that by quashing the FIR and observing that the law had been misused in the matter, the Delhi High Court had sent a stern warning to the ruling dispensation. It demanded that the authorities stop the witch-hunt against independent media and that all other fabricated cases registered against NewsClick be dropped immediately.

The union said that at a time when the “so-called mainstream media organisations” were serving corporate interests and political propaganda, NewsClick strove to amplify the voice of the public. The portal had consistently reported on the farmers’ protest in New Delhi and questioned those in power, the union said.