WASHINGTON —Indian authorities have arrested Vivek Raghuvanshi, a protection journalist and longtime correspondent for Defense News, and accused him of espionage, in accordance with reviews within the Indian press.

Raghuvanshi’s arrest drew a condemnation from Sightline Media Group, the writer of Defense News and Military Times.

“We call for the immediate release of freelance reporter Vivek Raghuvanshi following his arrest in India,” stated Mike Gruss, Sightline’s editor-in-chief. “Vivek has written about the Indian defense industry for Sightline publications for more than three decades and has shown that he is a journalist of integrity and the highest ethical standards.

“Vivek is deeply respected by his colleagues and by his readers in the defense industry, who know they can rely on for accurate reporting and fairness,” Gruss continued. “Sightline leaders have not seen any evidence to substantiate these charges and repudiate attacks on press freedom.”

Sightline Media Group is an impartial, for-profit U.S. media firm with correspondents around the globe. It shouldn’t be affiliated with the U.S. authorities.

The Indian Express reported that India’s Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Raghuvanshi and a former commander within the Indian navy, Ashish Pathak, on Tuesday night time. The Indian Express quoted a CBI spokesperson who stated the bureau had carried out a number of searches.

The National Press Club additionally referred to as on Indian authorities to launch Raghuvanshi.

“We were disappointed to hear of the arrest of journalist Vivek Raghuvanshi in India this week,” National Press Club President Eileen O’Reilly and National Press Club Journalism Institute President Gil Klein stated in a press release. “The charges against him of working with a foreign intelligence service are completely at odds with his well-established professional profile. Vivek has a solid reputation and the respect of his colleagues.”

Defense News reporter Jen Judson was the a hundred and fifteenth president of the National Press Club.

Raghuvanshi’s arrest comes at a time of accelerating concern in regards to the state of press freedoms in India. Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists have been among the many human rights organizations that issued a press release on World Press Freedom Day earlier this month calling on Indian authorities to cease prosecuting journalists and on-line commentators for criticizing authorities insurance policies.

The human rights organizations cited a number of instances lately by which press freedoms had been suppressed in India. Those included a March 2022 incident by which airport authorities prevented a outstanding feminine Muslim journalist, Rana Ayyub, from flying from Mumbai to London to talk at a journalism gathering. Ayyub is a critic of the Bharatiya Janata Party, a significant political social gathering in India.

The organizations additionally stated three journalists have been re-arrested by Kashmir authorities in 2022 below a regulation that enables authorities “to arbitrarily detain people without evidence and thorough judicial review.” At the time of their re-arrests, these three journalists have been out on bail on different instances the human rights organizations stated have been “filed against them in retaliation for their journalism work.”