NEW DELHI: India’s position on Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index of 180 nations has dropped from 140 to 150 since Modi took office as prime minister in 2014 and there are multiple reports to prove the point and hold that media is under a constant threat in the country.
Journalists Without Borders
Press freedom in the greatest democracy of the world as claimed by Indian Prime Minister Modi, the head of the BJP and the personification of the Hindu nationalist right, ruling since 2014, is in danger as evidenced by violence against journalists, politically partisan media, and concentration of media ownership.
Oligarchs having ties with Modi
Because the top media owners frequently have tight ties to members of the ruling party, a 2019 RSF survey on media ownership found that the level of concentration is particularly concerning.
When Narendra Modi was elected prime minister, he facilitated a stunning alliance between the media’s powerful major families and his party, the BJP. The best example is definitely Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries company, which owns over 70 media sites and is followed by at least 800 million Indians. Ambani is a close friend and associate of Modi.
The end of diversity in mainstream media was also signaled by Gautam Adani, a businessman who is close to Narendra Modi, taking control of the New Delhi Television (NDTV) channel by the end of 2022.
Prominent NDTV journalists left organization
It is a fact that oligarchic media purchases are undermining India’s pluralistic public discourse and NDTV’s takeover made it clear, resulting in many journalists leaving the organization.
The list has many names who made a name for themselves over the years with the viewers.
Editor-in-chief and host of NDTV’s 24-hour news channel, NDTV 24×7, Nidhi Razdan left the organization followed by the public resignation of Star anchor Sreenivasan Jain. Suparna Singh, the organization’s 20-year president followed suit besides Deputy Chief Strategy Officer Arijit Chatterjee and Chief technology/product officer Arijit Chatterjee.
The founders of the NDTV group, former journalists Radhika and Prannoy Roy, also withdrew from management in December 2022.
Modi regime tempts people with ads
In order to impose its own narrative at the national level, the federal government currently spends more than 1.8 billion rupees (20.4 million euros) annually on advertisements in print and internet media.
Additionally, in recent years, media outlets like Times Now and Republic TV, which combine populism with pro-BJP propaganda, have emerged under the label Godi Media (a play on Modi’s name and lapdogs).
As a result, intimidation and influence are significantly undermining the old Indian model of a pluralist press.
Social-cultural setting
Only a small portion of India’s enormous diversity is depicted in the media. A bias that is evident in media content is that, for the most part, only Hindu men from higher castes hold senior positions in journalism or are media executives. For instance, less than 15% of guests on popular nighttime talk shows are women.
Safety
India is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for media, with an average of over a dozen journalists dying while doing their jobs each year.
Journalists are subjected to all forms of physical violence, such as that committed by police, by political activists, or as fatal retaliation by gangs or corrupt local officials.
Hindutva supporters actively attack any opinions that diverge from their communally restricted thinking online. Hindutva is the ideology that gave rise to the Hindu far right. On social media, horrifying organised campaigns of hatred and murderous incitement are carried out; these campaigns are frequently considerably more violent when they target women journalists, whose personal information may be put online as an additional inducement to violence.
The situation is also still highly concerning in IIOJK, where journalists are frequently harassed by police and paramilitaries, with some being held for years in what is referred to as “provisional” imprisonment.
Abuse of the law
Journalists who criticise the government and are labelled as anti-national are increasingly being charged with defamation, sedition, contempt of court, and jeopardising national security.
BBC harassed
The BBC produced and aired a programme titled India: The Modi Question in February 2023 that exposed Modi’s involvement, among other things, in the Gujarat riot against Muslims. Government utilised emergency legislation to force Twitter and YouTube to remove parts from a BBC programme that had been barred from showing in India.
India’s tax authorities conducted a raid on BBC’s offices in Delhi and Mumbai out of retaliation. This degrading treatment persisted for several weeks. A merciless search against the worldwide broadcaster lasted three days. Tax officials accused BBC of evading taxes, which the broadcaster categorically denied.
What’s left are a few significant, independent [internet] channels, according to political scientist Somdeep Sen of Roskilde University in Denmark. The future is bleak for Indian democracy if this trend keeps up. The raid was described as a “clear cut case of vendetta” by the Press Club of India.
Before a BBC documentary about Modi’s complicity in the killing of Muslims in Gujarat and elsewhere is scheduled to be aired, some students at Jamia Millia Islamia University have been detained.
The government proposed new regulations for digital media in January 2023, giving it full authority to evaluate the contents and label them as “fake or false.”
E-commerce sites, internet service providers, and search engines are required to comply with content takedown orders within 36 hours or risk losing safe harbour protection in India under the new regulations, which went into effect on April 6, 2023. The new regulations required platforms to remove content related to any business of the government that was deemed to be “fake or false or misleading” by a fact-checking agency of the government.
The IT Amendment Rules 2023 expand upon the IT Rules 2021, which are frequently used to repress and punish any criticism of the Indian administration in power. Since taking office in 2014, the BJP has enacted a number of harsh legislation that aim to suppress journalists and undermine press freedom in India.
In a statement, the International Press Institute, a network of prominent editors, media executives, and journalists, urged the Modi administration to avoid using harsh laws to restrict free speech and access to information in order to strengthen its influence over the media.
International Press Institute monitoring report
During this six-month monitoring period (between April and September 2022), IPI found 83 violations of press freedom in India, continuing an alarming decline in press freedom since Modi took office in 2014.
In accordance with the 2021 IT law, which provides the government broad authority to remove online information, the government blocked 22 YouTube channels in April 2022, citing violations of national security.
Following a government request to take down a tweet from prominent journalist Rana Ayyub that was published months earlier and allegedly in violation of the IT Act, Twitter responded in June 2022.
Blackouts in communications
The Indian government is in charge of issuing the most worldwide orders for network shutdowns. IPI observed that authorities in IIOJK, a region that had previously endured one of the longest known communication shutdowns on record, spanning 552 days, more than a dozen times during its monitoring period (April – September 2022).
The government has frequently suspended mobile and internet access outside of Kashmir, including in Manipur where civil unrest is ongoing.
Physical attacks on journalists
IPI reported that between April and September 2022, the period it was watching, at least 18 journalists experienced physical assaults and other forms of violence, in situations involving both state- and non-state actors.
There were numerous instances of journalists being severely beaten by police while they were being held. Mob violence has also affected journalists.
A mob attacked four journalists in April during a Delhi “Hindu Mahapanchayat” gathering. Five journalists were also attacked and tortured by local mafia members that month when they attempted to expose the illicit activities of mafias dealing with liquor trade.
According to IPI monitoring data, 20 journalists were detained between April and September 2022, frequently on criminal allegations. Multiple arrests under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act were made against Kashmiri journalist Fahad Shah, who is a part of a larger pattern of legal intimidation and harassment of independent journalists in IIOJK.
IPI recorded at least 124 violations of press freedom between October 2022 and March 2023, a six-month period. 75% of documented abuses of press freedom involved state actors.
At least 35 journalists were subjected to physical, verbal, or online assaults during this six-month period, according to IPI’s monitoring.
A journalist in Jaunpur was shot twice outside his office in March 2023 by armed men in revenge for a story he had written about an alleged attack by the brother of the district head of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
A group of 30 Students’ Federation of India activists broke into Asianet News’ offices in Kochi that same month and threatened employees over a story the station had aired about a girl being sexually assaulted.
In punishment for a piece, he published on Pandharinath Amberkar’s illegal land acquisitions, journalist Shashikant Warishe was killed on February 6, 2023, in a staged “motorcycle accident” by Amberkar’s goons. This individual is connected to Prime Minister Modi, Chief Minister of Maharashtra Eknath Shinde, and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Journalists are prosecuted under harsh laws
Two journalists were accused in October 2022 for allegedly posting a seditious essay about Jammu and Kashmir under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Criminal Code, and the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act.
Following a second raid on the houses of three journalists, the home of a newspaper owner, and the offices of a daily in Srinagar, Indian police searched at least six journalists’ homes and seized equipment.
In January 2023, Kolkata police filed a case under the criminal code and the Information Technology Act of 2000 against ten journalists for allegedly fabricating the location of a stone-throwing incident on a high-speed rail and harming the reputation of the West Bengal chief minister.
A municipality official has filed a criminal complaint against eight West Bengal-based journalists for their coverage of corruption in the Nabadwip Municipality (West Bengal).
A 19-year-old reporter was detained in Uttar Pradesh in March 2023 after a leader of the BJP’s youth wing, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, filed criminal charges against him for asking a state minister during a public forum.
The same month, the son of a government official in Haryana filed charges against two journalists for allegedly posting defamatory remarks about government officials in two WhatsApp groups. A journalist in IIOJK was also detained by the National Investigation Agency on terrorism-related charges under the Criminal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
During the monitoring period, IPI documented at least 35 instances of censorship, including at least 20 instances of governmental orders to shut down internet and mobile networks.
India shut down the internet at least 84 times in 2022, the most of any nation in the world for the fifth consecutive year.
The IIOJK Government Abused Emergency Powers to tighten its control on online content) caused more than half of these network shutdowns.
122 accounts belonging to Indian journalists, writers, and politicians were ordered to be blocked on Twitter in response to a crackdown on civil rights in Punjab.
Ordered the blocking of a BBC programme that was critical of Prime Minister Modi on Twitter and YouTube.
Raid on BBC headquarters in Mumbai and New Delhi as part of a probe investigating claims of tax evasion.
Issued a directive to prohibit the streaming service Vidly TV, which is based in Pakistan, due to national security concerns.
Informed Times Now, India Today, Republic TV, and Zed News that official government press releases must be used as the foundation for any reportage on the Delhi liquor policy case. Office of Asianet News in Kozhikode was searched following a complaint from a government official.
Following the takeover of NDTV by billionaire and Modi friend Gautam Adani, who acquired about 65% of the independent news channel, many journalists were either dismissed or resigned under forceful conditions.
New regulations limiting journalists’ rights
Draught The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 grants the government broad authority to exclude itself from the bill’s data protection requirements beyond justifiable exceptions.
Platforms are required by the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2023 to remove content pertaining to any government business that has been determined to be fabricated, false, or misleading by a government fact-checking body.
Specifically, when disclosure is required to support criminal investigations, a Delhi court held that there is no legislative exemption for media to withhold sources from the Central Bureau of Investigation. https://rsf.org/en/index
