The United States, the self-proclaimed flag bearer of press freedom, loves preaching to other countries about media rights and journalistic freedom while neglecting to follow these principles in their own country. In a heated exchange with Today News Africa’s White House correspondent Simon Ateba on June 26 (local time), US Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre (KJP) was called for their hypocrisy. Ateba accused the White House of deleting his heated argument with the US press secretary about alleged discrimination against him on purpose.
Prior to the argument between journalist Simon Ateba and the US press secretary, the latter ‘condemned’ the alleged ‘harassment’ of Wall Street Journal (WSJ) White House correspondent Sabrina Siddiqui, who faced backlash for asking a propaganda-filled question in an effort to corner PM Modi during his official state visit to the US. Siddiqui questioned PM Modi in an attempt to reinforce the distorted narrative that Muslims are “under attack in India.”
“So I just want to just reiterate a little bit what John (Kirby) said, is that we’re certainly here, at the White House, under this administration, we’re committed to the freedom of the press, which is, which is why we had the press conference last week,” the US press secretary said.
KJP continued, “So just want to remind folks that’s why we had the press conference last week, And just to also just repeat what you just all heard from my colleague, We certainly condemn any efforts of intimidation or harassment of a journalist or any journalist that is just trying to do their job. And so, I just want to..”
This is when KJP was interrupted by journalist Simon Ateba who called out the White House’s blatant hypocrisy as KJP was condemning the so-called harassment of Sabrina Siddiqui while the White House has been ignoring Simon Ateba for over nine months.
“So are you going to take questions from me? Are you going to take questions from me because you’ve been discriminating against me for the past nine months.,” Ateba asked.
Instead of answering his question, the US press secretary said that if Simon Ateba continues to speak like that, she would end the press briefing. She further claimed that Ateba was being “incredibly rude” while the journalist said that he wanted the White House to allow him to do his job and ask questions. KJP persisted in trying not to let Simon Ateba make his point while minutes before she was talking about press freedom, advocating for a propagandist in the garb of a journalist.
The White House edited out Ateba’s heated exchange with Karine Jean-Pierre; however, following public outrage over the White House’s blatant attempt to restrict press freedom and discriminate against a journalist, the portion of Ateba-KJP interaction was restored. The White House blamed ‘technical glitch’ for removal of the clip.
In a long tweet, Simon Ateba slammed the White House for discriminating against a black journalist and others he accused of trying to malign and oust him from the White House. He stated that the story of his discrimination will last fifty years from now.
When a journalist is covering the @WhiteHouse and the WH and the @PressSec are discriminating against him, what do you do? Do you side with the WH as @Mediaite did yesterday? Do you call him a 'horrible person' as @sunny Hostin did on @TheView? Do you try to malign him as… pic.twitter.com/IRZTWZRKMb
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) June 27, 2023
While the Biden administration defended journalist Sabrina Siddiqui for attempting to undermine the India-US relationship during President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s joint press conference at the White House, it refuses to take questions from journalists who they dislike or find critical of their policies.
This blatant display of hypocrisy comes after ‘journalist’ Sabrina Siddiqui got a befitting response from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who on June 22 was addressing a joint press conference along with President Biden. PM Modi’s response came as Siddiqui accused his government of discriminating against Muslims and trying to silence his critics.
“India has long prided itself as the world’s largest democracy, but there are many human rights groups who say that your government has discriminated against religious minorities and sought to silence its critics. As you stand here in the East Room of the White House, where so many world leaders have made commitments to protecting democracy, what steps are you and your government willing to take to protect the rights of Muslims and other minorities and to uphold free speech?” Siddiqui questioned.
Siddiqui’s attempt at cornering PM Modi over alleged discrimination against Muslims in India, however, was met with a rather befitting response from the Indian Prime Minister.
“I am surprised that you are saying that ‘people say’ India is a democracy. It is not about what people say, India is a democracy. And as President Biden said, both India and America have democracy in their DNA. Democracy is our spirit, democracy flows in our veins. We live democracy and our ancestors have put that into words in the shape of the Constitution and our government runs on the basis of the Constitution which is based on the basic democratic values,” PM Modi said.
This sparked online criticism of Siddiqui, which was exacerbated when Alt News co-founder tried to pass her off as an ‘Indian’ since she is the great-great-granddaughter of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, who was among the earliest proponents of the two-nation theory. It is important to note that this very two-nation theory laid the foundation for the demand for the creation of a separate Islamic nation, Pakistan, and the bloodshed that ensued.
While the White House came to Sabrina Siddiqui’s defence even as they discriminate against journalists like Simon Ateba, OpIndia reported about the five occasions where the US President himself was hostile to the media.
