Editorial: Muzzling the media

It is no surprise that India’s ranking in the 2023 World Press Freedom Index has fallen to 161 among the list of 180 countries

A free and independent media is the bedrock of democracy. Despite disagreements with the content, those in power must, at all times, desist from controlling the media narratives. The NDA government’s record in upholding the freedom of media organisations has been pathetic. The police raids on dozens of places connected with news portal NewsClick and its journalists provide yet another proof of the growing weaponisation of the state agencies to muzzle the voice of the media. The invocation of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against the media organisation is appalling. The police action was based on the Enforcement Directorate’s charge that NewsClick had allegedly received illegal funding from China, routed through the United States, and has been carrying deliberately misleading stories to project India in poor light. The charge against the portal is that it has been pushing the Chinese agenda, using foreign funds. Editor-in-Chief of the portal Prabir Purkayastha has been arrested and his office sealed. While the authorities can carry on with their task of ascertaining whether the promoters violated the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) or indulged in other unlawful activities, those working for the news portal, including the content creators, must not be harassed. Individual journalists with a proven track record should not be held responsible for financial misdemeanours, if any, of the promoters. There have been several instances in the recent past where media organisations faced harassment on flimsy grounds.

The detention of journalists and filing of cases against media companies reek of growing intolerance to criticism and a tendency to intimidate critics using draconian laws. No wonder that India’s ranking in the 2023 World Press Freedom Index has fallen to 161 among the list of 180 countries. It slipped 11 places in 2023 and eight places last year. This shows the continuous deterioration of the situation in the country in terms of the protection of media rights. The index is released annually by the Paris-based international non-profit organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The RSF report notes that with an average of three or four journalists being killed in connection with their work every year, India is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for the media. This is a poor commentary on the state of media freedom in a country that takes pride in being the world’s largest democracy. The World Press Freedom Index highlights the degree of freedom that journalists, news organisations and netizens have in each country, and the government’s efforts to respect such freedom. In the last two decades, India, which was ranked 80th on the index in 2002, has seen its press freedom ranking progressively plummet. The country profile by RSF on India also says that the Indian press used to be seen as fairly progressive but things changed radically in the mid-2010s when Narendra Modi became Prime Minister.