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Calling the blocking of the prominent diaspora outlet 'Australia Today' by Canada, the "murder of free press", its founder and editor-in-chief Jitarth Jai Bhardwaj questioned the Justin Trudeau government as to why the rights of the Hindu community in the country are not being upheld, as they face "repeated attacks on their places of worship."
This comes after Canada blocked the outlet's social media handles and pages shortly after it aired a press conference of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar with his Australian counterpart Penny Wong in Canberra. During the presser, the EAM slammed Canada for making allegations against India without any specific evidence and termed the "surveillance of Indian diplomats" unacceptable and also highlighted that the "political space has been given in Canada to anti-India elements."
On Thursday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) also lambasted Canada for its "hypocrisy towards freedom of speech" following the blocking of 'The Australia Today' in the country.
Following the blocking by the Trudeau government, Mr Bhardwaj raised concerns over the move and said the publication would continue to advocate for open media.
In an interview with ANI, Mr Bhardwaj opened up about how their supporters notified them about not being able to access the outlet's content in Canada. After that, they found out that the press conference and interview of EAM Jaishankar went off the social media platform.
"We were notified by a lot of readers, followers of our page that they are not able to watch or view our content on Facebook and Instagram which they were able to watch like 10-15 minutes back and now they were not. They were trying to share it with their friends and colleagues and all of a sudden the press conference and the interview went off from the Facebook page and there was a notification written there that this content was not available for viewing in Canada by the order of Canadian government legislation," he said.
Condemning the Trudeau government's "dictatorial" move as a "murder of press freedom", the editor of the outlet said there should be a space for diverse views in a democracy.
"This is a murder of press freedom. This is not free speech, this is not how democracies act, and this is the way for dictators to act and clamp down on the press. In every democracy, there is space for diverse views and for the press to debate, interpret, analyse all those diverse views," Mr Bhardwaj said.
He added, "It seems that Canada is not kind of happy with how we were asking questions to Indian and Australian foreign ministers and they were not happy to see that a lot of Canadians were responding to it and they were trying to educate themselves than what Canadian government has been propagating for long now."
The Australia Today founder further elaborated on the news coverage of his outlet, and said they aim to provide coverage to the 'vibrant' Indian democracy, which he said, is being "left out".
"Australia Today is a news outlet that works for multicultural communities in the West. We do stories from UK, Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Singapore, everywhere the Indian diaspora is hardworking and vibrant. Their stories are important, however, they are being left out by the so-called mainstream media, and this platform Australia Today highlights the issues which are very important to the Indian Australian community and Indian diaspora as a whole," he said.
While stating that the coverage of 'The Australia Today' is being appreciated everywhere for highlighting the condition of the Indian community, Mr Bhardwaj also shed light on the 'threats' received by the outlet. He alleged that the news platform and its journalists have been threatened by India-designated terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and other Khalistani extremists.
"Our coverage about what is happening by Khalistani groups in Canada or in the US was getting a lot of traction there. Our reporting was being appreciated in all the places. Gurpatwant Singh Pannun threatened us after issuing a video. He put pictures of me and my team online, telling his supporters to harm us in different ways. This has been going on and we have been reporting continuously without fear," he said.
Referring to the situation in Canada, 'The Australia Today' editor-in-chief said that the Hindu community is being "attacked, persecuted and suppressed" not just by the extremist elements, but also by the police and the authorities.
He also said that his outlet is willing to interview Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and ministers and ask why the rights of the Hindu community are not being realised in his country as they continue to face one untoward incident after the other.
"I'm just a reporter. I can report on what is going on. So I can say that the Hindu community is being attacked in Canada right now. The Hindu community is being persecuted in Canada right now by police, RCMP, and authorities. Everyone is working as if to suppress the rights of Canadian Hindu citizens," Mr Bhardwaj said.
"That's what I see right now and that's what we are reporting. If Trudeau or his ministers are happy to talk to us, we are happy to interview them and ask simple questions that any and every journalist should be asking them right now. Why Hindu community in Canada is being treated the way they are being treated? Why their rights are not upheld? Why are their temples being attacked? These are the questions Trudeau should be answering right now," he added.
Being asked about whether 'The Australia Today' will try to challenge the Canadian government's order, the editor said they would focus on reporting the issues of Canadian citizens without any fear.
"I don't think Canadian government is listening right now. But we will not stop doing what we do, that is reporting. Reporting the issues of Canadian citizens, Canadian Indians, and multilingual communities. That we will keep on doing," Mr Bhardwaj stressed.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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