Four press freedom organisations — among them the Press Club of India and the Indian Women's Press Corps — raised objections over the detention of journalists who had gathered to report on protests in Delhi calling for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to step down. The organisations contended that journalists faced phone and equipment seizures, alongside what they described as incidents of harassment against reporters.

A joint statement from the four organisations — the PCI, the IWPC, the Delhi Union of Journalists, and the Kerala Union of Working Journalists' Delhi unit — noted that a number of journalists were taken into custody while visibly carrying their press credentials.

Authorities in Delhi detained hundreds of people as demonstrators converged on the city calling for Kumar to step down from his post. Among the journalists covering the events were those caught up in the police action, with all four organisations reporting that detainees — including their own staff — were put on buses and taken to holding locations such as Chhatrasal Stadium and the Chanakyapuri police station.

Journalists from The Quint, The Wire, Scroll, Reporter TV, Navbharat Times, and Newslaundry, together with veteran reporter Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, were counted among those taken into custody. The group stated through a subsequent release that they had been held while covering detentions on the ground, their press credentials visibly displayed throughout.

The organisations contended that officers on the scene put the reporters' press credentials in doubt. The four organisations reported that some officers, during the detention period, were heard questioning the validity of press credentials on the grounds that journalism had become a title freely claimed by anyone, and that mobile phones belonging to the journalists — used in the course of their reporting — had been confiscated and retained by the authorities.

The organisations characterised the detentions as an attack on press freedom and challenged Delhi Police's stated position that only journalists holding Press Information Bureau accreditation would be permitted to cover the protests, arguing that the right to report cannot be made contingent on holding such credentials. The statement noted that press recognition under the law extends to many digital and independent outlets that operate without PIB accreditation cards.

According to the organisations' account, a joint memorandum setting out concerns about access restrictions placed on journalists at the protests had been submitted to the Delhi Police commissioner earlier that week. Their account held that police had not acted on the recommendations put forward to them.

Among the demands set out by the organisations were the freeing of every journalist held in custody without conditions or delay, the restoration of confiscated phones and equipment, and a formal apology to be issued by Delhi Police. A demand for an inquiry into the conduct of senior police officers was also put forward, centred on allegations that detentions had been carried out despite journalists presenting their press identity cards at the time.

A guarantee that journalists would face no interference while reporting on protests was among the additional demands put forward by the organisations. Questions about the level of security deployed across the capital were also raised by all four organisations.

The organisations alleged that roughly 22,000 police and paramilitary officers had been deployed throughout the capital, that metro stations were closed and internet services suspended in the period before the gatherings took place. In their assessment, detaining journalists without explanation, preventing them from carrying out their work, and imposing those wide-ranging restrictions on connectivity and movement to stifle peaceful public scrutiny of institutions constituted conduct more typically associated with non-democratic forms of governance.

The four organisations urged that press freedom be protected, with their joint statement holding that reporters must be allowed to carry out their work free from intimidation or interference.