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Arthur Bouvart and Jules Giraudat took up assignment after Indian journalists threatened
Michael Safi in Delhi
@safimichael
Wed 5 Dec 2018 14.42 GMT
Tamil Nadu state police (pictured in 2016) are investigating the journalists for trespassing and visa violations. Photograph: Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images
Two French journalists have been labelled spies and are the subject of a criminal investigation after they tried to report on sand mining in south India– an assignment they took up because Indian journalists had been threatened for reporting on the issue.
The pair, Arthur Bouvart and Jules Giraudat, arrived in Tamil Nadu state in November to investigate the environmental impact of mining sand, a resource that has become scarce and increasingly lucrative amid a decades-long Asian construction boom.
The journalists, who were in India on tourist visas, work for Forbidden Stories, a newly formed media project that pursues stories other reporters have been killed, jailed or threatened over.
Tamil Nadu has allegedly been the site of rampant illegal extraction of sand and other beach minerals, which activists estimate could have cost the state exchequer at least $300m in lost revenues.
Indian journalist Sandhya Ravishankar says she was stalked and harassed last year after publishing a series of investigative reports into the industry, which she alleged was allowed to operate illegally by colluding with state and federal officials.
According to a report filed by the Tamil Nadu state police, Bouvart and Giraudat entered a facility belonging to Indian Rare Earths Limited (Irel), a national mining agency, and spent five minutes on the premises before they were asked to leave the “prohibited place”.
The police document says the men, accompanied by a local priest, were permitted to enter the premises by a security guard, did not film inside and left when asked to do so.
Giraudat told the Guardian he and Bouvart had gone directly to the site’s manager’s office. “We asked if we could make a visit, they said no, asked us to leave and we left,” he said.
Both left India before police started their enquiries. They are being investigated for trespassing and visa violations.
Two Indian journalists, D Anandhakumar and M Sriram, who had been assisting the French journalists with translation – but did not accompany them to Irel – were held by police for two days without explanation, and released after their detention became the subject of media enquiries. They have been asked to return to assist police with the investigation and fear they could be charged.
A local branch of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party has put posters up in the area where Irel is based, warning: “There are French spies in Kanyakumari district. People beware.”
Sandhya Ravishankar@sandhyaravishan
· 8h
Replying to @sandhyaravishan
They work with @FbdnStories in France, an investigative journalism organisation that works with "a network of journalists whose mission is to continue and publish the work of other journalists facing threats, prison, or murder." http://www.forbiddenstories.org (10/n)
Home • Forbidden Stories
forbiddenstories.org
Sandhya Ravishankar@sandhyaravishan
But Kanyakumari unit of the @BJP4India continues to propagate the notion that these journalists are "SPIES" and have embarked on hyper-nationalist alarmist propaganda. These posters by the BJP state - "There are French spies in Kanyakumari district. People beware." (11/n) pic.twitter.com/pX3cMp7cil
1
12:09 PM - Dec 5, 2018
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India’s junior shipping minister, Pon Radhakrishnan, also told reporters last week the two journalists were spies who had arrived in India via “the sea route”.
A report released on Wednesday by Article 19, a group that campaigns for freedom of expression and information, said such rights had declined more steeply in India in the past four years than almost any other country.
“Seven journalists were killed last year,” the group’s report said. “Journalists have been subjected to online smear campaigns and threats by Hindu nationalists, contributing to a climate of self-censorship.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...s-labelled-spies-india-sand-mining-assignment
Michael Safi in Delhi
@safimichael
Wed 5 Dec 2018 14.42 GMT
Tamil Nadu state police (pictured in 2016) are investigating the journalists for trespassing and visa violations. Photograph: Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images
Two French journalists have been labelled spies and are the subject of a criminal investigation after they tried to report on sand mining in south India– an assignment they took up because Indian journalists had been threatened for reporting on the issue.
The pair, Arthur Bouvart and Jules Giraudat, arrived in Tamil Nadu state in November to investigate the environmental impact of mining sand, a resource that has become scarce and increasingly lucrative amid a decades-long Asian construction boom.
The journalists, who were in India on tourist visas, work for Forbidden Stories, a newly formed media project that pursues stories other reporters have been killed, jailed or threatened over.
Tamil Nadu has allegedly been the site of rampant illegal extraction of sand and other beach minerals, which activists estimate could have cost the state exchequer at least $300m in lost revenues.
Indian journalist Sandhya Ravishankar says she was stalked and harassed last year after publishing a series of investigative reports into the industry, which she alleged was allowed to operate illegally by colluding with state and federal officials.
According to a report filed by the Tamil Nadu state police, Bouvart and Giraudat entered a facility belonging to Indian Rare Earths Limited (Irel), a national mining agency, and spent five minutes on the premises before they were asked to leave the “prohibited place”.
The police document says the men, accompanied by a local priest, were permitted to enter the premises by a security guard, did not film inside and left when asked to do so.
Giraudat told the Guardian he and Bouvart had gone directly to the site’s manager’s office. “We asked if we could make a visit, they said no, asked us to leave and we left,” he said.
Both left India before police started their enquiries. They are being investigated for trespassing and visa violations.
Two Indian journalists, D Anandhakumar and M Sriram, who had been assisting the French journalists with translation – but did not accompany them to Irel – were held by police for two days without explanation, and released after their detention became the subject of media enquiries. They have been asked to return to assist police with the investigation and fear they could be charged.
A local branch of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party has put posters up in the area where Irel is based, warning: “There are French spies in Kanyakumari district. People beware.”
Sandhya Ravishankar@sandhyaravishan
· 8h
Replying to @sandhyaravishan
They work with @FbdnStories in France, an investigative journalism organisation that works with "a network of journalists whose mission is to continue and publish the work of other journalists facing threats, prison, or murder." http://www.forbiddenstories.org (10/n)
Home • Forbidden Stories
forbiddenstories.org
Sandhya Ravishankar@sandhyaravishan
But Kanyakumari unit of the @BJP4India continues to propagate the notion that these journalists are "SPIES" and have embarked on hyper-nationalist alarmist propaganda. These posters by the BJP state - "There are French spies in Kanyakumari district. People beware." (11/n) pic.twitter.com/pX3cMp7cil
1
12:09 PM - Dec 5, 2018
Twitter Ads info and privacy
See Sandhya Ravishankar's other Tweets
India’s junior shipping minister, Pon Radhakrishnan, also told reporters last week the two journalists were spies who had arrived in India via “the sea route”.
A report released on Wednesday by Article 19, a group that campaigns for freedom of expression and information, said such rights had declined more steeply in India in the past four years than almost any other country.
“Seven journalists were killed last year,” the group’s report said. “Journalists have been subjected to online smear campaigns and threats by Hindu nationalists, contributing to a climate of self-censorship.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...s-labelled-spies-india-sand-mining-assignment
