RANA AYYUB RECEIVES JOHN AUBUCHON PRESS FREEDOM AWARD

This is a verbatim transcript of the acceptance speech delivered by Ayyub who is the first Indian to receive the highest press freedom award by the United States

Introduction by Jen Judson, President of the National Press Club :

Rana’s courage and skill in investigative work has been evident through her distinguished career and her criticism of the government has met with an unwelcome assault on her Rights and Freedom of Expression. And this year the trend of arrests and detentions of journalists in India appears to be accelerating. At the center of the storm stands Rana and the National Press Club stands with her. Rana is the first Indian journalist to receive the Aubuchon Award. By selecting Rana, the club is committing to monitor and support her case and do what we can to assure her Freedom, including her freedom to publish.

Earlier this year, Twitter informed Rana, it was complying with the demand from the Indian government to censor, inside India, one of her tweets related to threats against a mosque. Twitter cited the Telecommunications Act of 2000 which gives the Indian government control over what is published in India. This version of prior restraint is unworthy of a nation with India’s democratic traditions. The Press Club urged Twitter to restore her account immediately. The Indian government was also making burdensome an invasive request for Rana’s personal financial information and froze most of her assets. She has received threats both online and in person that have driven her from her home and into hiding regularly.

Rana was even blocked from leaving India to travel to London earlier this year. Her lawyers have since worked to get the travel restrictions lifted, as you can see, she is sitting here in the audience and has been in the United States as a Pritzker Fellow at the University of Chicago and she’s now here in DC.

Violence against journalists in India continues to rise. In the last 5 years, 18 journalists have been murdered in India, making it one of the deadliest countries in the world for journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders. And Rana has been named by Time magazine among 10 Global Journalists who face maximum threats to their lives.

Please, let’s give a big round of applause to our 2022 International Aubuchon honoree, Rana

Ayyub…Rana…

[Rana Ayyub climbs the podium to receive her John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award to a round of applause]

Rana Ayyub: Good evening everybody. It’s a safe space, I think, for me to speak in a room

full of journalists who will understand and not pick my word out from…to charge me with sedition or war against Nation. But, to begin with, Thank you so much to National Press Club, to Jen, to Bill, for this honor. Like Jen said, the moment…the day they called me, to announce that I am the recipient of the Aubuchon honor this year, I was in hiding…because one of my colleagues, a journalist friend of mine who is a co-accused with me in a case, was behind bars for a tweet he wrote 4 years ago. Ironic, isn’t it? that people who preside over genocides are feted by the world but those who speak truth to power have been asked to stay low profile. That’s the sign of the times we live in.

To begin with, it’s a huge honor for me and I would like to thank The Washington Post for having my back at a time when journalists in India and top editors in India, where I worked, where I held top positions, pretended that I did not exist, post 2014, when Mr. Modi became the Prime Minister of India. So, thank you to The Washington Post for having my back through my toughest times.

I would like to dedicate this award to a person who is not in our midst, her name is Shireen Abu Akhleh, a journalist who was killed [huge round of applause]. Shireen didn’t have to die, she didn’t have to be murdered, she should have been right here with us. In her life, in her death, Shireen exposed the hypocrisy and dual standards of the world on Human Rights.

And that’s the truth we all need to accept and understand and more than ever before right now. Every time I am in the US, people talk about India. When I tell them I am from India,

there is, “Oh! you are from the land of Ayurveda, meditation, Yoga”, [laughter]..Yes, true. Snake charmers, yes. I also belong to a country of 1.3 billion people, the world’s largest democracy with 220 million Muslim population, who are now at the cusp of a genocide, right?

I meet officials here in State department and top officials, high ranking officials in the US

and they say “Rana, what’s happening?”. And I tell them, “you know what’s happening

better than I do, right?”. And then, I am told, you know we know what’s happening in India, but you know bilateral relationship vis-à-vis China and Russia, Human Rights be damned, right? Journalists be damned. And so ironic! Two weeks ago, the US State department was

questioned about the immunity been given to MBS when he was travelling and they cited the example of Narendra Modi that even he was given similar immunity. So, they did my job in a way, by comparing MBS with Narendra Modi.

That’s exactly what I have been doing, right? Trying to tell the world, that the man who you put on the cover of international magazines, is a man who has blood on his hands. He has! In 2002, a thousand Muslims were massacred in a span of two days when Mr Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat and we never even thought it as a joke that this man will become the Prime Minister. So much so, the United States would not allow him entry into the US and now you look at him, he has just taken over the Presidency of G-20.

For this very speech, my country will tell me that I am unpatriotic. I believe that I love India more than I love any other country in the world. I love my country, which is why I am here, risking everything to speak, because this could potentially be my last trip out of India. In a week from now, I will know my fate, I will know if a non-bailable warrant will be issued against me, I don’t know if I am going to be arrested on arrival. As soon as I got here, a charge sheet was filed against me, which means I cannot leave India after this. I am going to use this opportunity to tell you the story of India in a gist, I mean it’s a big story, in a gist, so when I leave…[pause]…I know that some of you will speak about the story that the world

needs to hear urgently. It’s a story not just about the persecution of Muslims minorities, it’s a story of India, the world’s largest democracy sliding into a state of fascism. India’s Home Minister, Amit Shah was a man, unfortunately and fortunately, I put behind bars in 2010 with my investigation when I published his call records. I was about 25 and then I went undercover with 8 cameras on my body, posing as a Hindu nationalist girl for American Film Institute conservatory. I went undercover and I met all the high ranking officials in the Modi government, including Mr Modi himself, and that investigation was

killed…[long pause]…After meeting almost every publisher and editor in India who said,

Rana, “This is path breaking, this is like the Watergate Scandal.”

I said, “okay! You should publish it, right?”

“We could, but you know, things are tough”.

And, I understand that, right? We don’t have an independent press in India anymore. The

world’s largest democracy, the Prime Minister of India has not taken a single press

conference in the last 8 years. The Home Minister of India, the most powerful man, recently

said that the 2002 genocide of Muslims, Mr Modi taught the anti-nationals a lesson!

Shouldn’t the world be outraged? What will it take for the world to be outraged is what I keep wondering all the time. When I come to the US, when I travel the world, what will it take for the world to understand that we are looking at the world’s largest democracy, the land of Gandhi, right? But, at this point of time his assassin is being worshiped, Gandhi’s assassin! People want to build a bust of him. We have a Prime Minister, who routinely dog whistles against Muslims. You are all eating beef here, right?…[addressing the audience] a beef steak! You could be killed for eating beef in India, especially, if you are a Muslim. The number of Muslims who have been lynched in the last 8 years of Mr. Modi’s government for just allegedly consuming beef! And, that is just one of the thing that has been thrown at

India’s Muslim minority.

Why am I attacked so much? Because, unfortunately and fortunately, I also happen to be a

Muslim and a woman. How dare I speak? How dare I speak in a country which does not

consider me an equal? How dare I speak in a country when I am supposed to be A second

class citizen of the country?

So, I am here in the United States, receiving this award, trying to feel less alone at a time

when I do feel very lonely. This year when government filed money laundering charges

against me, the Indian media just had me as the story, when my entire life and my entire

family was made a free-for-all. There were television cameras parked exactly right opposite

my house, saying, “We are getting first visuals of Rana Ayyub’s house”. I don’t have a private

life!

When I go for a walk, I feel..when my neighbours look at me, I feel like, are they judging

me? And I feel like all the time. Both my brothers have lost the job because of the call that I

have taken to be a journalist. Both my brothers, who were publishers are no longer in office

because they got to know that they are my siblings. And that`s just giving you a gist of

what’s happening back with me in India right now. When the government, the ministers of

the Modi government have shared videos of my image morphed on a porn video circulated

all over the country in screenshots, my phone number, my address doxed on social media,

people sending me screenshots. The spokesperson of Mr. Modi’s party put out a tweet,

saying “Rana’s father soliciting prostitute sitting in Germany”, when my father has never left

the country, who has dementia. That’s like a very tiny window into what I face daily. When I

published Gujarat Files, which is a tell-all book of the undercover operation, my colleague

Gauri Lankesh wanted to translate my book in regional language. She said, “Rana, let’s

translate this book, let’s get this book out.”

And I said, “Are you sure?”

And she said, “Yes!”

And I was getting a lot of hate from the Indian government at that point of time and she

called me and asked, “Are you okay?”

I said, “I am fine.”

She said, “Babe, these are nincompoops, these are paper tigers. Don’t bother.”

The next day, she was shot dead outside her house. Right? You don’t know these

stories…and those killers are still out. This is just a nutshell. I can go on and on about India.

But I feel that I am sitting in a room full of editors and I am sure you will do your due

diligence to get the stories of India out. I really believe and I really have faith in you.

Umm…the last two months have been exhausting and I am actually on the verge of losing

faith on what the world could do about India, but we are journalists, we are here, supposed

to be…a nuisance, like I believe, I am nuisance for a lot of people.

When I was coming here to give my speech, my mom said, “Try to have a one filter. Try not

to say everything that comes to your mouth.” [audience laughs]…umm...umm..That’s who I

am unfortunately and that’s why I felt like I shouldn’t be doing a lot of official meetings. But

thank you for having me here, thank you for letting me pour my heart out, thank you…for

making me feel less alone and isolated, where at a time when I go back to a country where

my friends who would earlier call me for coffee in coffee shops, now call me home. They

say, “come home”. I know why they do that. They don’t want to be seen with me in public,

right? I can’t tell you how isolating that is…umm…to be living like a criminal in my own

country – a country that keeps asking me for test of patriotism every single day even if I could just pour my heart out. So thank you so much. I really appreciate you listening to me

and my 5 minutes of whatever…[smiling]…Thank you so much, means a lot to me. Thank

you!

[Standing ovation]

Here is a link to the video of the rana ayyub acceptance speech

This is a verbatim transcript of everything Rana spoke, it was spontaneous, with fumbles and awkward silences. The transcript is a reflection of this unprepared speech that intends to center the human in this story of guts and empathy.