Press freedom in crisis in Modi’s India, situation worrisome in Kashmir: RSF Press Freedom Index
Paris: Highlighting persecution of journalists in India and the acquisition of media by wealthy businessmen closely aligned with Modi, the 2024 World Press Freedom Index has said that press freedom is in crisis in the world’s so-called largest democracy.
According to Kashmir Media Service, while mentioning the press freedom situation in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the 2024 World Press Freedom Index released by Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said, “The situation also remains 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”.
India has been ranked 159 in the RSF report released on World Press Freedom day, today.
“With violence against journalists, highly concentrated media ownership, and political alignment, press freedom is in crisis in “the world’s largest democracy”, ruled since 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and embodiment of the Hindu nationalist right,” RSF stated while releasing the data.
In its country report on India, RSF says that the press freedom situation has deteriorated on various counts since the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014.
The RSF said that India’s rank was “pushed up two places despite recently adopting more draconian laws” and is still “unworthy of a democracy”. It said that India’s two-rank upgrade was “misleading”, as its scores fell but the change in position was due to worse falls by countries previously above it”, the report noted.
The report said that almost all the mainstream media in India are now owned by wealthy businessmen close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Reliance Industries group’s magnate Mukesh Ambani, a personal friend of the prime minister, owns more than 70 media outlets. The NDTV channel’s acquisition at the end of 2022 by Gautam Adani, a tycoon who is also close to Modi, signalled the end of pluralism in the mainstream media. Recent years have also seen the rise of “Godi media” – media outlets that mix populism and pro-BJP propaganda. …. The prime minister is very critical of journalists, seeing them as intermediaries polluting his direct relationship with his supporters”.
“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 who are critical of the government are routinely subjected to online harassment, intimidation, threats and physical attacks, as well as criminal prosecutions and arbitrary arrests”.
“Indian journalists who are very critical of the government are subjected to harassment campaigns by BJP-backed trolls,” it notes.
The RSF report states that Modi has an army of supporters “who track down all online reporting regarded as critical of the government and wage horrific harassment campaigns against the sources. Caught between these two forms of extreme pressure, many journalists are, in practice, forced to censor themselves.”
