After being called out for
being a Chinese mouthpiece and pushing Beijing’s agenda, a Delhi-based media
portal named News Click, which is
financed by American tech mogul Neville Roy Singham has found support for its
nefarious actions. In the latest development, the Press Club of India has come
out to defend the dubious organisation and released a statement in its favour.
The letter termed the recent exposé as a “targeted campaign”
and claimed to have “deep concern” about the same as well as criticised the
suspicion raised after the shocking reveal. It stated, “We the undersigned
organisations, express deep concern over the ongoing targeted campaign against
the news web portal News click and its founders. The recent accusations
levelled by senior political figures, including some members of parliament,
suggesting that the portal serves as a mouthpiece for a neighbouring country
are both unwarranted and condemnable.”Targeting Newsclick could rightly be
characterized as a witch-hunt.”
It was signed by Umakant Lakhera who is the president of the club
and Shobhna Jain, president of the Indian Women’s Press Corps. It also
contained the names of C.K. Nayak, president of the press association along
with Sujata Madhok, president of the Delhi Units of Journalists.
The Enforcement Directorate discovered more than two years ago after
conducting a probe that NewsClick had received approximately Rs 38 crores in
funds from abroad. The agency was able to follow the money trail to
American millionaire Neville Roy Singham, who reportedly has extensive
ties to the Communist Party of China’s publicity department.
Now, an investigation by the
New York Times has recently uncovered an ecosystem
of activist organisations, non-profits, shell corporations, and their intimate
ties to China and Chinese propaganda. Notably, Neville Roy Singham is at the
heart of this network. The article read, “What is less known, and is hidden
amid a tangle of nonprofit groups and shell companies, is that Mr Singham works
closely with the Chinese government media machine and is financing its
propaganda worldwide.”
It was highlighted that he has been successful in spreading talking
points from the communist administration in nations including India, Brazil,
South Africa, and the United States under the guise of progressive advocacy.
The report pointed out, “In New Delhi, corporate filings show, Singham’s
network financed a news site, NewsClick, that sprinkled its coverage with
Chinese government talking points.”
Through this global ecosystem of activists and non-governmental
organisations, China, which has been attempting to assert its economic and
global might for quite some time, has created a system that covertly promotes
the Chinese people and reiterates the official line. It showed how the
country has been able to deflect criticism of its violations of human rights
from around the world and how its position on global issues is woven into
international discourses owing to this network.
The recent emergence of purported email
correspondence between ThoughtWorks founder Neville Roy Singham and NewsClick
Editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha among other comrades has revealed a sinister
toolkit on how the nexus was allegedly working in tandem and using Chinese
propaganda films and content to peddle pro-Chinese narrative in India and world
over.
During the centennial year of the establishment of
the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Indian leftist propaganda portal
Newsclick carried an article piece praising the transformation of China as a world power under the
communist regime.
It goes a notch higher and claims
that the CPC represents the great inclusiveness of Chinese society and it has
no parallel whatsoever throughout the world. Clearly, the repressive measures
adopted by CPC against Tibetans, Uigyur Muslims, non-Han Chinese, or anyone who
dare to speak their mind, as Jack Maa did sometime back, have been completely
overlooked to present a hagiographic portrayal of the CPC. In the
latest development in the NewsClick Chinese funding case, the Enforcement
Directorate has attached a South Delhi
flat worth Rs 4.5 crore belonging to Prabir Purkayastha, the editor-in-chief
and promoter of the propaganda portal NewsClick. The ED has also attached
Prabir Purkayastha’s fixed deposits worth Rs 41 lakh under the Prevention of
Money Laundering Act, in addition to the flat.
According to the ED probe,
Bappaditya Sinha of the CPM’s IT cell and Gautam Navlakha, an urban naxal accused in
the Bhima Koregaon case are shareholders of NewsClick. Other people who
owned shares in the portal included the US-based Worldwide Media Holding LLC,
which was 100% owned by a corporation managed by Singham’s activist wife Jodie
Evans. In its investigation, the New York Times noted Evan’s involvement in
influencing public opinion on China.
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