White House condemns harassment of WSJ reporter

Sabrina Siddiqui

The White House is condemning the harassment of a Wall Street Journal reporter who questioned India’s prime minister about human rights in his country at a press conference last week.

A Journal story states, “Sabrina Siddiqui, a White House reporter, was the only U.S. journalist to ask Narendra Modi a question at the White House event Thursday. She referenced concerns from human rights organizations, which have criticized discrimination against religious minorities, especially Muslims, and a crackdown on dissent and press freedom under Modi’s Hindu nationalist government. Siddiqui asked Modi what steps he was taking to protect minorities and uphold free speech.

“Modi, who has seldom faced the news media over his nine years as prime minister, said in response that ‘democracy is our spirit’ and defended his government’s record.

“Since the press conference, Siddiqui has been subject to online attacks from officials from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, including a party spokesman who called her a ‘bigot’ on Twitter.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.