Rana Ayyub honored with highest Press Freedom award of US, becomes first Indian to achieve feat
Says “there is no free press in India anymore” in powerful acceptance speech
New York: Indian journalist Rana Ayyub was on Wednesday received the prestigious John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award at the 2022 Fourth Estate Award Gala.
The award is conferred by the National Press Club of Washington DC and is the club’s highest honor of Press Freedom.
This year’s Aubuchon #pressfreedom international honoree is Rana Ayyub! She is an investigative journalist living in India and a Washington Post Global Opinions contributor, the NPC Journalist Institute wrote in its tweet.
“We are pleased to name Rana Ayyub the 2022 John Aubuchon Award International Honoree. Ms. Ayyub’s courage and skill in investigative work has been evident throughout her distinguished career and her criticism of the government has been met with an unwelcome assault on her rights and freedom of expression.” National Press Club President Jen Judson and National Press Club Journalism Institute President Gil Klein had said earlier this year while announcing Rana Ayyub’s name for the award.
Ayyub after her name was announced in July 2022, dedicated the award to her colleagues who are lying in different prisons across the country. “Dedicating this to my colleagues Mohd. Zubair, Siddique Kappan, and Asif Sultan incarcerated for speaking truth to power,” she had said.
In her acceptance speech on Wednesday, Rana Ayyub said that there is no free press in India anymore. “I’m here, trying to feel less alone at a time I feel very lonely” she added in her speech.
"I happen to be a Muslim & a woman. How dare I speak? ... Thank you for making me feel less alone & isolated." She further added.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
