Who's behind the news?
Who's behind the news?
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Newsjunkie.net is a resource guide for journalists. We show who's behind the news, and provide tools to help navigate the modern business of information.
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New Delhi, India (headquarters) · Mumbai (additional office)
Editorial note: NewsClick and its founder Prabir Purkayastha are the subjects of active legal proceedings in India as of 2025. The allegations of Chinese government-linked funding and pro-China propaganda are contested: NewsClick and Neville Roy Singham have denied both, and the Supreme Court of India declared Purkayastha's October 2023 arrest "invalid in the eyes of law." This page presents the documented record of both the allegations and the denials, the legal proceedings, and press freedom assessments by independent organisations including the Committee to Protect Journalists, PEN International, and Reporters Without Borders.
NewsClick is an independent Indian digital news website founded in 2009 by Prabir Purkayastha, who serves as its editor-in-chief and is a director of its owning company, PPK NewsClick Studio Private Limited. The publication describes itself as "dedicated to covering news from India and beyond, with a particular focus on progressive movements," and has built a substantial audience and journalistic reputation through sustained coverage of the Indian farmers' protest movement, labour rights, caste discrimination, attacks on minorities, the rights of indigenous and tribal communities, and the working poor — stories that receive inadequate coverage in most of India's corporate mainstream media. Writing in The Wire, journalist Satarupa Chakraborty described NewsClick as having "built its credibility by recording the voices of unheard." The publication has been the target of escalating government legal action since 2021, culminating in October 2023 in one of the most extensive raids on a news organisation in Indian democratic history — an action widely condemned by press freedom organizations worldwide and described by NewsClick as a direct attack on independent journalism.
Prabir Purkayastha was born in 1949. He trained as an engineer at the universities of Calcutta and Allahabad, and joined Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi in 1975 as a research scholar. His political formation was shaped by the Indira Gandhi-era Emergency of 1975–77: Purkayastha was arrested in 1975 at JNU — in a case of mistaken identity, picked up in place of another activist — and the experience of arbitrary state detention left a permanent mark on his political outlook. After the Emergency he became deeply involved in left-wing and progressive politics, science activism, and public interest litigation. He co-founded the Delhi Science Forum and the All India People's Science Network. He is president of the Free Software Movement of India, established in 2010. He is co-convenor of the Just Net Coalition, a global coalition on internet governance and digital independence. He has filed multiple public interest litigations to safeguard India's interests in the telecom sector. He is the author of a book on the Enron scandal in India and of an autobiography titled Keeping Up the Good Fight — From the Emergency to the Present Day.
In 2009, Purkayastha founded NewsClick to establish what he described as an independent platform for news reporting with a particular focus on progressive movements. The publication covered technology, science, and digital rights alongside its core political and social journalism, reflecting his own intellectual range. Subodh Varma serves as a co-director of PPK NewsClick Studio Private Limited alongside Purkayastha. Over the following decade NewsClick established itself as a significant voice on the Indian left, publishing video journalism, analysis, and ground-level reportage from across India's states.
On 5 August 2023, the New York Times published an investigation by reporters Megan Specia, Eric Schmitt, and others, titled "A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a U.S. Tech Mogul." The article profiled Neville Roy Singham — born in New Jersey to Sri Lankan Tamil parents, a US citizen who founded the technology consultancy ThoughtWorks in 1993 and sold it for a reported several hundred million dollars in 2017, and who has since lived in Shanghai. The Times alleged that Singham had built a global financial network of nonprofits, media organisations, and advocacy groups whose content, the paper argued, often echoed Chinese government talking points — describing it as a "lavishly funded influence campaign." Among the specific entities the Times named as beneficiaries was NewsClick in India. The Times reported that corporate filings showed Singham's network — specifically a US-based entity called Worldwide Media Holdings LLC, owned by Peoples Support Foundation Ltd, a nonprofit managed by former ThoughtWorks employees — had financed NewsClick, and that NewsClick had "sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points," citing a video in which a NewsClick broadcast asserted that "China's history continues to inspire the working classes."
Singham and his allies denied the allegations vigorously. In a statement published by The Wire, Singham described the Times article as "a misleading and innuendo-laden hit piece," argued that the paper had "intentionally chose not to publish all the factual rebuttals" he had provided on 22 July 2023 prior to publication, and said the article had "done a great disservice to the cause of press freedom." He denied acting at the direction of the Chinese Communist Party, denied that his funding network was connected to the Chinese government, and stated that neither he nor PSF had ever taken directions from any foreign government or political party. Jason Pfetcher, manager of Worldwide Media Holdings and a former ThoughtWorks employee, issued a parallel denial on behalf of PSF, stating that PSF had never received funding from or taken direction from any foreign individual, organisation, political party, or government. NewsClick itself denied publishing news at the behest of any Chinese entity or authority or taking editorial direction from Singham. The publication's legal representatives noted that multiple Indian enforcement agencies — the Enforcement Directorate, the Economic Offences Wing, and the Income Tax Department — had investigated NewsClick's finances over several years and had been unable to establish money laundering or file charge sheets under the relevant statutes.
Neville Roy Singham is a self-described socialist and a co-founder and funder of The People's Forum in New York, a left-wing advocacy organisation. He shares office space in Shanghai with the Maku Group, a media company whose stated purpose includes presenting China's story to international audiences. He has also been associated with Dongsheng News, a Chinese media outlet. US Senator Marco Rubio called for an investigation into whether Singham and his wife Jodie Evans were operating as unregistered foreign agents. Singham has not been charged under the Foreign Agents Registration Act or any comparable statute. Independent fact-checking organisations have noted that while the Times traced financial flows and organisational links, the specific question of whether NewsClick's content was editorially directed by Singham or by Chinese government actors — as distinct from receiving funding from entities linked to him — was not definitively established by the documentary evidence the paper cited.
Twelve days after the New York Times article was published, on 17 August 2023, Delhi Police's Special Cell secretly prepared and registered a First Information Report against NewsClick under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA) — India's stringent anti-terror law — and under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. The FIR alleged that NewsClick had illegally received crores of rupees in foreign funds and had used them "with the intention to disrupt the sovereignty, unity and security of India," and that Purkayastha had conspired to fund terrorist activities and promote Chinese propaganda. The existence of the FIR was not immediately made public.
On 3 October 2023, Delhi Police's Special Cell conducted mass coordinated raids at more than 100 locations across India, including the offices of NewsClick, Purkayastha's residence, and the homes of approximately 46 current and former NewsClick journalists, contributors, and associated professionals — among them Abhisar Sharma, Aunindyo Chakravarty, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Bhasha Singh, Bappa Sinha, and Urmilesh. Devices — computers, mobile phones, and other electronic equipment — were seized at locations across the country. No seizure memos or hash values were provided to those whose devices were taken, meaning the chain of custody could not be verified, a procedural failure that press freedom organisations and legal experts noted creates a risk of evidence tampering. Purkayastha was arrested from his office by the Special Cell along with NewsClick's HR head Amit Chakravarty.
On 4 October 2023, the Additional Sessions Judge in Delhi remanded Purkayastha and Chakravarty to seven days of police custody. On 11 October 2023, the Central Bureau of Investigation conducted further raids on Purkayastha's home and office, registering a separate case under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), which governs foreign funding of Indian organisations. Purkayastha challenged his arrest in the Delhi High Court, which dismissed his application on 13 October. NewsClick's office at Sainik Farms was sealed by police.
Purkayastha remained in custody for 225 days. On 15 May 2024, a bench of the Supreme Court of India consisting of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta heard his appeal against the High Court's order and declared his arrest "invalid in the eyes of law." The Court found that a copy of the remand application had not been provided to Purkayastha or his counsel before the remand order was passed on 4 October 2023, meaning the grounds of his arrest had not been communicated to him in writing as required under Sections 43A, 43B, and 43C of the UAPA — the same constitutional safeguard the Court had applied in the parallel money laundering context in the 2023 Pankaj Bansal v. Union of India judgment. The Court said it felt "no hesitation" in declaring the arrest invalid and ordered his release subject to bail bond. The Court explicitly clarified that its observations did not reflect on the merits of the underlying case, which remained pending. Chakravarty was separately released on bail. As of April 2025, the UAPA and FCRA cases against NewsClick and Purkayastha remained pending in the courts.
The October 2023 raids and arrests were immediately and widely condemned by press freedom organizations and journalist collectives in India and internationally. The Committee to Protect Journalists called for charges to be dropped, noting that the UAPA makes it "virtually impossible to get bail" and describing Purkayastha as someone who "should never have been imprisoned in the first place." PEN International documented the case in its 2024 Writers at Risk report, cataloguing the seizure of devices without proper chain-of-custody documentation and the CBI's FCRA registration. The Press Club of India, the Editors Guild of India, the National Alliance of Journalists, the Delhi Union of Journalists, and DIGIPUB all issued statements on 3 October 2023 condemning the raids as a threat to press freedom and characterizing the government's actions as targeted suppression of independent journalism. Veteran journalist N. Ram wrote in Frontline that the momentum of those protests "must be used to build a democratic movement deeply committed to ensuring that not just the voices of independent and critical journalists but also their lives, safety, and fundamental liberties guaranteed by the Constitution are protected." India ranked 159th out of 180 countries in the 2024 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index — a year in which at least 16 journalists had been charged under UAPA, with seven behind bars according to the Free Speech Collective.
The Columbia University Global Freedom of Expression database has characterised the pattern of legal proceedings against NewsClick as exemplifying a SLAPP suit — strategic litigation against public participation — in which "government authorities have used legal proceedings to silence NewsClick's critical journalism and stifle public discourse on sensitive issues and by abusing financial laws and subjecting the media organization to repeated investigations without concrete evidence." NewsClick submitted to the court that prior to October 2023, multiple agencies had investigated its finances over several years without being able to file a charge sheet or complaint under money laundering statutes, and that the FIR was directly triggered by the Times article and constituted "an attempt to shut down and stifle independent and fearless voices that portray the story of the real India — of peasants, of labourers, of farmers, and other oft-ignored sections of society."
NewsClick continues to publish at newsclick.in and on its YouTube channel. Following the October 2023 raids and the seizure of equipment, the publication experienced significant disruption to operations, the loss of a number of staff and contributors who reduced their involvement for personal safety reasons, and a period of reduced publishing activity. By 2024 and into 2025 it had resumed more regular publication. After 225 days in custody and his Supreme Court-ordered release in May 2024, Purkayastha addressed a public gathering of journalists and activists, saying: "It's not possible to fool people forever." He resumed his editorial and public advocacy roles. The UAPA and FCRA cases remain pending, and the legal proceedings continue to represent a substantial constraint on the publication's operations and on the professional lives of those associated with it.
NewsClick
PPK NewsClick Studio Private Limited
New Delhi, India (headquarters)
Founder and Editor-in-Chief: Prabir Purkayastha (arrested 3 October 2023 under UAPA; arrest declared invalid by Supreme Court 15 May 2024; released on bail after 225 days; case pending as of 2025)
Website: newsclick.in
About: newsclick.in/about-us