The RSF’s analysis mentioned that India’s media has fallen into an “unofficial state of emergency” since PM Modi came to power in 2014 and “engineered a spectacular rapprochement between his party, the BJP, and the big families dominating the media”.
NEW DELHI: India ranked 159 among 180 countries in the latest annual World Press Freedom Index 2024 released by Reporters Without Borders. This is two spots higher than last year. India had ranked 161 in the 2023 list.
As various media watchdogs around the world flagged the worsening situation of freedom of the press on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released its annual index based on five indicators: political context, legal framework, economic context, sociocultural context and safety of journalists.
Norway topped the ranking, while Denmark was on the second rank in the World Press Freedom Index. Sweden ranked third on the list. Several European countries including Ireland have slipped by several notches in this index.
The RSF’s index shows an overall decline in press freedom globally and a steep rise in the political repression of journalists and independent media outlets.
Political attacks on press freedom, including the detention of journalists, suppression of independent media outlets, and widespread dissemination of misinformation, have significantly intensified in the past year, according to the annual World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
The RSF says that, since October 2023, more than 100 Palestinian reporters have been killed in Gaza, including at least 22 in the course of their work. However, Palestine has dropped just one rank from 156 to 157, despite a months-long Israeli offensive that has ostensibly left the highest number of journalists dead in any conflict in this decade.
The report added that some countries’ improved rankings in the Index “are misleading since their scores fell and the Index rises were the result of falls by countries previously above them”.
It included India in this category and stated that India was pushed up two places despite recently adopting more draconian laws.
India’s ranking
Though India has moved up by two places from 161 to 159 this year, it is still behind Turkey, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, which are ranked at positions 158, 152, and 150, respectively.
In its analysis, the RSF claimed that “press freedom is in crisis in India, the world’s largest democracy. As per the report, nine journalists and one media worker have been detained in India as of today, while no journalist/media worker has been killed in the country since January 2024.
The RSF’s analysis mentioned that India’s media has fallen into an “unofficial state of emergency” since PM Modi came to power in 2014 and “engineered a spectacular rapprochement between his party, the BJP, and the big families dominating the media”.
It cited an example, reporting that “Reliance Industries group’s magnate Mukesh Ambani…owns more than 70 media outlets that are followed by at least 800 million Indians.” It also mentioned the NDTV channel’s acquisition at the end of 2022 by Gautam Adani, a tycoon who is also close to Modi, which signalled the end of pluralism in the mainstream media.
Elaborating on the manipulation of the media landscape in India, the report pointed out, “Recent years have also seen the rise of “Godi media” (pun for designating Modi’s “dogs”) – media outlets that mix populism and pro-BJP propaganda. Through pressure and influence, the old Indian model of a pluralist press is being called into question.”
It added, “The prime minister is very critical of journalists, seeing them as “intermediaries” polluting his direct relationship with his supporters. Indian journalists who are very critical of the government are subjected to harassment campaigns by BJP-backed trolls.”
Draconian Laws and Harassment
The report noted with concern that Modi has introduced several new laws that will give the government extraordinary power to control the media, censor news, and silence critics, including the 2023 Telecommunications Act, the 2023 draft Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, and the 2023 Digital Personal Data Protection Act.
The report said 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”.
“The situation is and 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,” the RSF’s analysis added.
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.
Not just India, the RSF noted that “the press freedom situation has worsened in the Asia-Pacific region, where 26 of the 32 countries and territories have seen their scores fall in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index.”
Suppression in South Asia
Meanwhile, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), on behalf of the South Asia Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN), released its 22nd annual South Asia Press Freedom Report, entitled ‘Artificial Independence: The Fight to Save Media and Democracy’.
The IFJ’s South Asia Press Freedom Report for 2023-2024 (SAPFR 23-24), Artificial Independence: The Fight to Save Media and Democracy’, explores the complex interactions between democracy, media economies, and the fundamental freedoms of the press and expression across the eight countries of South Asia from May 1, 2023, to April 30, 2024.
The IFJ recorded a total of 232 media rights violations in the period, including the targeted killings of 8 journalists and media workers. Journalists across the region faced attacks, arrests, and detention with at least 87 media professionals jailed or detained, and over 138 assaulted, threatened, or harassed, often by law enforcement. At the time of publication, at least 15 journalists remain behind bars.
With six nations in South Asia and over 2 billion people globally participating in elections in 2023 and 2024, the period was characterized by threats to democracy across the region, including physical violence, misinformation, political, religious, and ethnic divides, and polarised media coverage.
The synergy between freedom of expression and robust democracy was apparent as controls on access to information, communications shutdowns, surveillance, and pressure on independent and critical media were used by autocrats to crush dissent, the IFJ pointed out.
It added, “Wage threats, job losses, shuttering of media houses, and precarious working conditions all posed serious questions for ongoing media viability, as many countries still battled severe economic crises following the Covid-19 pandemic. With the growing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in newsrooms and on social media in the region, journalists also faced unprecedented challenges to the very practice of their craft as misinformation and disinformation continued to take hold.”
It said that despite these challenges, trust in the media is not completely lost, with dynamic and dedicated digital outlets, fact-checking collectives, and social media initiatives offering a view of an independent media future in an era of increasing corporate control.
The IFJ said: “Without media, there is no democracy, and as press freedom in South Asia continues to come under attack amid government crackdowns, political polarisation, economic crises, and digital disruption, journalists have persisted to hold the powerful to account and ensure the real story is told. As misinformation and disinformation run rife, never has it been more important for collective solutions at all levels of society to create safeguards for media and support fact-based independent journalism on a broad scale. Real investment is needed to ensure ongoing media viability in the region, with journalists actively involved to find solutions, drive agendas, and uphold media as crucial democratic infrastructure.”
Indian case
Regarding India, the IFJ pointed out that a deeply polarised legacy media pushed the discourse onto digital media and social media, with YouTube becoming a major source of news. Independent journalism suffered in the mix of the online mire, it said.
“Unfiltered, with no editorial oversight, social media has emerged as a contentious, often toxic space that mirrors and exacerbates existing social cleavages of gender, religion, caste, and ethnicity. The government of Narendra Modi continued to issue thinly veiled threats, in the guise of “advisories” warning the media from publishing/telecasting false content that could potentially disturb communal harmony or public order,” it further added.
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