We, the undersigned, are shocked at the action of the UP police under Yogi Adityanath in filing criminal charges against The Wire and against one of its founding editors, Siddharth Varadarajan. This attack on media freedom, especially during the Covid-19 crisis, endangers not just free speech, but the public’s right to information. The target of this action is a factual story on the Tablighi Jamaat and its exposure to Covid- 19. Towards the end, the impugned article merely pointed out that “Indian believers” more generally have been late to adopt precautions and avoid congregation, recalling UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s plans, as late as March 18, to proceed with a religious fair at Ayodhya and his flouting of the national lockdown and social distancing norms by taking part in a religious ceremony along with others on March 25. Two FIRs were filed under various sections of the law on April 1, one on a complaint by a resident of Ayodhya and the other on the basis of a complaint by the SHO of the Kotwali Nagar police station, Faizabad. A plain reading of the sections invoked in the FIRs (given below) makes it clear they cannot possibly apply to the article in question. The FIRs were followed up with a gross display of intimidation on April 10 when policemen arrived in a black SUV with no numberplates at Varadarajan’s residence in Delhi to issue a legal notice ordering him to appear in Ayodhya on April 14 at 10 am. That the UP government sent policemen driving across 700 kilometres during the national lockdown to issue this summons when the postal system is still operational speaks volumes for its priorities. The Wire, along with other independent media and journalists, has been courageous and consistent in continuing to present the facts. The UP police action is just the latest in a series of attempts by the ruling establishment, or persons close to them, to entangle The Wire and its editors in legal cases in an effort to shut them down. The police action against The Wire also comes against the backdrop of the demonization of Muslims in a section of the media as being responsible for the spread of the novel coronavirus in India. On April 6, the WHO felt the need to reiterate the principle that media should avoid religious or other profiling of COVID-19 cases. We, the undersigned, 1. 1. Call upon the Government of Uttar Pradesh to withdraw the FIR against Siddharth Varadarajan and The Wire, and drop all criminal proceedings. 2. We urge the Government of India and all state governments not to use the pandemic as a cover to trample upon media freedom. A medical emergency should not serve as the pretext for the imposition of a de facto political emergency. 3. We call upon the Indian media to not communalise the pandemic.. List of Signatories (in alphabetical order upto 2 pm, April 14) 1. A Kapila, London 2. A N, New Delhi 3. Anand Arni, Former Sp. Secretary RAW 4. A S Kajal, JNU , New Delhi 5. A Shriram, Delhi 6. A Sunil Dharan, University of Delhi, Delhi 7. Anand, Saajhi Duniya 8. Srivathsan, CEPT University, Ahmedabad 9. R. Vasavi, Punarchith Collective, Chamrajnagar 10. Aadhya Shukla, Gurgaon 11. Aadita Chaudhury, York University, Toronto, Canada 12. Aaditya Varane, Ulhasnagar, Maharashtra 13. Aafaq Ansari, Mumbai 14. Aakansha Maheshwari, Delhi 15. Aakash Jaiswal, Gujarat 16. Aakash Kamble, Pune 17. Aakash Mohan, London 18. Aaloka Kanhere, Mumbai 19. Aaron schneider, University of Denver, USA 20. Aarti Sunder, Artist 21. Aaarti Sethi, Harvard University 22. Aarti Vir, Hyderabad 23. Aashique Ahmed Iqbal, Assistant Professor, Krea University, Sri City, Andhra Pradesh 24. Aasif Abrar, Delhi 25. Aayushi S, Delhi 26. Aishwary Kumar, UC Santa CRuz 27. Aban Raza, Artist, Delhi 28. Abdul Arif, Edmonton, Canada 29. Abdul Azeem, Salem, Tamil Nadu 30. Abdul Basheed, Human India 31. Abdul G Syes, Dallas, TX 32. Abdul Hafiz Lakhani, Editor –Journalist. Ahmedabad 33. Abdul Haleem Syed, Hyderabad 34. Abdul Hannan, Gangtok 35. Abdul Quddus, Mumbai 36. Abdul Rahiman P K, University of Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 37. Abdul Rasheed, Kerala History Congress, Kerala 38. Abdul Rasheed, India 39. Abdul Rub Rayyan, Hyderabad 40. Abdul Wahid, New Jersey 41. Abdul Wase, Dayton, OH 42. Abdussalam Puthige, Director, Media center, Mangalore 43. Abha Dev Habib, Miranda House, University of Delhi 44. Abha Sur, MIT, Cambridge, MA 45. Abhay Kanta, Editor, Parivartanacha Watsaru, Thane 46. Abhay Kumar, New Delhi 47. Abhay Regulagedda, Patent Agent, Bengaluru 48. Abhay Sharma, Mumbai 49. Abhaya Nath Das, Advocate , Gurugram 50. Abhayraj Naik, Researcher and Consultant, Bangalore 51. Abhijit Gupta, Hyderabad 52. Abhijit Mitra, IIIT Hyderabad 53. Abhijit Mukerjee, Kolkata 54. Abhijit Sarkar, Indian citizen. Delhi 55. Abhijit Sengupta, Bengaluru 56. Abhijith R, Independent. Kerala 57. Abhijith T S, PhD Scholar, Changanacherry 58. Abhimanue Govindan, Artist Vadodara 59. Abhinav Muley, Academecian, Nagpur 60. Abhishek Arun, Student, delhi 61. Abhishek Kaicker, UC Berkeley 62. Abhishek Kumar, Banda 63. Abhishek Majumdar, New Delhi 64. Abhishek Shingala, NRI Grenoble france 65. Abhishek Singh Chauhan, Panjab University, Chandigarh 66. Abhiti Gupta, Lawyer, Delhi 67. Abid T.P., Mumbai 68. Abida Rahmani, Canada 69. Abigail Popple, McGill Daily, Montreal 70. Abinash Rai, EFLU 71. Achal Fl, Bangalore 72. Achal Prabhala, Researcher and writer 73. Achin Chakraborty, Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata 74. Achin Chakraborty, Institute of Development Studies Kolkata 75. Achinta Narayanchowdhury, Kolkata 76. Achintya Ghosh, India 77. Achyut Das, Agragamee Kashipur Rayagada Odisha 78. Adeel Ahmad, USA 79. Adil Qureshi, Washington DC 80. Adil Sheikh, Pune 81. Aditi Arur 82. Aditi Banerjee Independent Filmmaker 83. Aditi Chaturvedi, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Ashoka University 84. Aditi Pradhan, Jawaharlal Nehru University 85. Aditi Rao, Actor 86. Aditya Balasubramanian, Australian National University 87. Aditya Krishna, Student 88. Aditya Kumar, New Delhi 89. Aditya Mukherjee, Retired Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, New Delhi 90. Aditya Naik, Concerned citizen, Goa 91. Aditya Nimbalkar, Independent Mumbai 92. Aditya Pande, Independent, new delhi 93. Aditya R, University of Manchester, UK 94. Aditya Rametra, Chandigarh 95. Aditya Vyas, Activist, Nashik 96. Admiral Ramdas, Former Chief of Naval Staff L, Former Chief of Naval Staff 97. Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, Former Chief of the Naval Staff 98. Adnan Yasir, Muzaffarpur , Bihar. 99. Adolfo Naya, Social Anthropologist-Galiza 100. Adrian Correa, Mumbai 101. Afrah Shafiq, Visual Artist, Goa 102. Afreen Khan, Advocate, High Court of Bombay 103. Afsar Basha, Coimbatore 104. Aftab Alam, University of Cambridge 105. Aftab Alam, University of Delhi, New Delhi 106. Aftab Hamid, Jammu, Indian 107. AGk Menon, Architect and Urban Planner 108. Agastya Thapa 109. Agrima Kumar, Noida 110. Ahmad Khan, Student, University of Hyderabad | Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh 111. Ahmad Rashid, McGill University, Montreal 112. Ahmar Raza, Scientist New Delhi 113. Ahmed Ali, Hyd 114. Ahsan Khan, Indian American Muslim Council, US 115. Ahsan Qureshi, Toronto 116. Ahtasham Rizvi, Sheridan College, Oakville, ON, Canada 117. Ahvana Paul, New Delhi, student 118. Aijaz Zaka Syed, Journalist and columnist 119. Aisha Gazdar, Karachi 120. Aisha Shafi, Delhi University 121. Aishwarya Rajgopalan, Pune 122. Aishwarya V, Student, Pune 123. Ajai Bhatnagar, Pune 124. Ajantha Subramanian, Harvard University 125. Ajay Bhagwani, Pimpri Pune 126. Ajay Bhardwaj, PhD Candidate, UBC , Vancouver, BC. 127. Ajay Gudavarthy, CPS, JNU 128. Ajay Gujari, Mumbai 129. Ajay K Mehra, Political Scientist 130. Ajay Kumar Khemka, Bangalore 131. Ajay Phatak, Pune 132. Ajay Shaw, Writer, Mumbai 133. Ajay Skaria, University of Minnesota 134. AJC Bose Delhi University 135. Ajeet Singh, Citizen of India, Noida 136. Aji Valliathu Narayanan Achari, Rotterdam 137. Ajit Kumar, Hyderabad 138. Ajit Kumar Ray, Rtd Professor, North Bengal University 139. Ajit Menon, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai 140. Ajita Rao, WSS,Delhi 141. Ajitha G S, Publishing / Bangalore 142. Ajoy John, Kolkata 143. Akash Kumar, Finland 144. Akbar Panju, McMaster University 145. Akeel Merchant, Mumbai 146. Akhil Khanna, Bangalore 147. Akhil Kumar, Journalist, New Delhi 148. Akhil Sharma, Duke University North Carolina 149. Akhila Kumaran, TISS, Mumbai 150. Akhum Longkumer, Delhi university, new Delhi 151. Akif Patel, Mumbai 152. Akshay Dua, University of Toronto 153. Akshay Jaitly, Delhi 154. Akshay Mahajan, Goa 155. Akshay S, IIT Bombay 156. Akshay Sawant, IIT Bombay 157. Akshaya Mukul, Journalist & Author 158. Akshaya Tankha, PhD Student, University of Toronto 159. Alaka Basu, Professor, Cornell University 160. Alan Bosco, Delhi 161. Alan Rusbridger, Former Editor, The Guardian 162. Albeena Shakil, Sonipat 163. Alex Dmello, Mumbai 164. Alf Nilsen, University of Pretoria, South Africa 165. Ali Bijle, Pune 166. Ali Imran, Gurgaon 167. Ali Mohammad, c 168. Aliasgar Contractor, IIT Bombay 169. Alicia Giron, UNAM-MEXICO 170. Alicia Otani, Reno, Nevada 171. Alida Sroz, New Delhi 172. Aliza aiman, gaya 173. Alka Acharya JNU, New Delhi 174. Alka Narula, N.Delhi 175. Alka Sinha, Ghaziabad 176. Alka Sinhs, Ghaziabsd 177. Alnawaz Alam, X-Student, Kirorimal College 178. Alok Agarwal, Narmada Bachao Andolan 179. Alok Johri, McMaster University 180. Alok Laddha, Chennai 181. Alok Rai, Rtd Professor, DU 182. Alok Sheel, Ncr 183. Alpa Shah, London School of Economics 184. Altaf Khan, Mumbai 185. Amar Jesani, Editor, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, Mumbai 186. Amar Kanwar, New Delhi 187. Amaresh Kumar, Delhi. 188. Amba Singh 189. Ambarish Rai, Activist 190. Ambika Menon, Kochi 191. Ambika NAIR, Gurgaon 192. Ambika Singh, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist, New Delhi 193. Ambrish Ambrish, None New Delhi 194. Ameet Parameswaran, Jawaharlal Nehru University 195. Ameet Sikka, Navjeevan Vihaar 196. Amélie Blom, Institut National des Langues Orientales (INALCO), Paris 197. Ami Shroff, Self-employed from Mumbai 198. Amin Jibril, Canton, Michigan 199. Amin Zama, Boston 200. Amir Khan, Professor Hyderabad 201. Amir Khan, Noida 202. Amir Patel, Bangalore 203.