“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,” states the World Press Freedom Index 2022, published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The 20th edition of the index also reveals that the Global Press Freedom Ranking of India is one among the bottom 30 among 180 countries, and the country fell to the 150th place from 142 last year.

The report also points out that 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.” It adds that one journalist was killed since the beginning of 2022 and 10 were jailed.

According to the report, the state of press freedom changed “radically” after 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 adds, “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. Very early on, Modi took a critical stance vis-à-vis journalists, seeing them as “intermediaries” polluting the direct relationship between himself and his supporters. Indian journalists who are too critical of the government are subjected to all-out harassment and attack campaigns by Modi devotees known as bhakts.”