Rana Ayyub is among a number of female journalists routinely trolled

Who: Rana Ayyub, an independent journalist known for her investigative work on the 2002 Gujarat riots. She authored and published Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up, a book based on the accounts of cops, bureaucrats and politicians whom she interviewed during an eight-month-long sting operation in Gujarat while working with Tehelka.

What: Last week, Delhi Police registered a criminal case after Ayyub filed a complaint against unknown persons for posting fake tweets in her name and lewd videos of her by morphing images. It began with a fake “breaking news” tweet flashed by a Twitter handle of Republic TV. It quoted Ayyub as speaking in support of rapists of minors and associating the government’s ordinance mandating the death penalty for child rapists with violence against Muslims. After being alerted by a friend, she then tweeted to point out how internet trolls had posted fabricated tweets and videos so that even some of her well-wishers had begun turning on her.

Where: The Mumbai-based freelancer was in the capital to receive, ironically enough, an award from Outlook magazine — Social Media Youth Icon of the Year — even as right-wing trolls issued rape and death threats to her. The exhortations to sexual violence were accompanied with her address and contact details.

Why: Ayyub is among a number of female journalists who are routinely trolled. The vitriol against journalists who question the establishment is viewed as par for the course in the prevailing polarised environment on social media, while women also have to contend with misogyny and sexual harassment. Ayyub is among the most frequently targeted. As part of an anti-trolling initiative last year, Hindustan Times tracked four women journalists and found that Ayyub received 2,580 hateful, often Islamophobic, tweets in just one week.

The latest episode has been viewed as especially disturbing as it sprang from a “fake” tweet attributed to her, when the usual tendency is to either lump dissenters together or single them out only by picking on actual comments that they have made. Incidents such as these are symptomatic of the decline of press freedom in India. Journalists critical of the ruling party and other right-wing outfits are especially on the firing line, but states ruled by supposedly secular parties such as Trinamool Congress in West Bengal too have clamped down on the media and turned a blind eye to physical attacks on reporters. According to the World Press Freedom Index Report 2018 by Reporters Without Borders, India slipped two positions from the previous year to rank 138th out of 180 nations.

The Rana Ayyub incident even prompted the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) to raise its voice. “Police in New Delhi need to take the online attacks and threats against Rana Ayyub seriously and take swift action to protect her. Unchecked, these threats of violence amount to an assault on freedom of speech, and create a chilling effect on the media,” said Steven Butler, CPJ Asia programme coordinator in Washington DC.

This week, Ayyub thanked well-wishers and human rights and journalism groups for their support on Facebook. She was invited to Ghana to speak on harassment and intimidation of journalists on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day (May 3). She added that she has been offered a United Nations special rapporteur to ensure her safety in India.