Paris, May 03, 2023 (PPI-OT): Press freedom continues to decline in India under Narendra Modi’s rule as the country slips to 161st rank in terms of press freedom out of 180 countries ranked in the latest report released by global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders. According to Kashmir Media Service, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released the 2023 World Press Freedom Index, today. In the list, India dropped from being in a “problematic situation” into the lowest category after it slipped to the 161st rank in terms of press freedom out of 180 countries ranked, 11 ranks worse than 2022, when it stood at 150.
India thus finds itself among the 31 countries where RSF believes the situation for journalists is “very serious”. In its opening remarks about why India has been classified this way, RSF states, “The violence against journalists, the politically partisan media and the concentration of media ownership all demonstrate that press freedom is in crisis in “the world’s largest democracy”, ruled since 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the embodiment of the Hindu nationalist right.”
The RSF highlights several serious problems with the media landscape in India, one of which is the concentration of ownership with only a handful of sprawling media companies at the national level, including the Times Group, HT Media Ltd, The Hindu Group and Network18. This is made worse by the fact that there are openly mutually beneficial relationships between these companies and the Modi government, it continues: “The prime example is undoubtedly the Reliance Industries group led by Mukesh Ambani, now a personal friend of Modi’s, who owns more than 70 media outlets that are followed by at least 800 million Indians. Similarly, the takeover of the NDTV channel at the end of 2022 by tycoon Gautam Adani, who is also very close to Narendra Modi, signalled the end of pluralism in the mainstream media.”
Legally too, there are several ways journalists are harassed by those in power – including through charges of sedition and criminal defamation, according to RSF. “Indian law is protective in theory but charges of defamation, sedition, contempt of court and endangering national security are increasingly used against journalists critical of the government, who are branded as “anti-national”, the report notes. There is a lack of diversity in Indian newsrooms, according to RSF. “For the most part, only Hindu men from upper castes hold senior positions in journalism or are media executives – a bias that is reflected in media content.”
Even in terms of safety of journalists, India is performing poorly. In this regard, RSF notes: “With an average of three or four journalists killed in connection with their work every year, India is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for the media. Journalists are exposed to all kinds of physical violence including police violence. Supporters of Hindutva, the ideology that spawned the Hindu far right, wage all-out online attacks on any views that conflict with their thinking.
Terrifying coordinated campaigns of hatred and calls for murder are conducted on social media, campaigns that are often even more violent when they target women journalists, whose personal data may be posted online as an additional incitement to violence.” “The situation is also still very worrisome in Kashmir, where reporters are often harassed by police and paramilitaries, with some being subjected to so-called “provisional” detention for several years”.
For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549
Fax: +92-51-4861736
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.kmsnews.org