A Sword of Damocles is hanging over media freedom in India, the largest democracy in the world, even though the country’s top court has given voices critical of the government a temporary relief. 

In March 2024, the Supreme Court of India stayed the government’s move to make itself the sole determiner of true or false information until a provincial court, where the legal amendment has been challenged, decides on the Constitutional validity of the government’s move. 

The Narendra Modi government amended the Information Technology Rules 2021, on April 6, 2023, empowering the government’s Press Information Bureau (PIB)’s fact check unit with the power to identify “fake or false or misleading” online content “related to the business of the Central Government” and ask intermediaries – Facebook, YouTube, X, Instagram etc – to remove from their platform content they have flagged.  

Journalists felt it robs them of the scope for independent fact-checking on the government’s claims and actions. “The government has given itself absolute power to determine what is fake or not, in respect of its own work, and order take-down,” the Editors’ Guild of India said in a statement. The Association of Indian Magazines is one of the petitioners against the law in the provincial court. 

This is no isolated development. Over the past decade of PM Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rule, the government has faced repeated allegations of curbing media freedom and attempting to silence journalists with critical voices using various means, including police cases.

While the government has rubbished the charge of muzzling the media, journalist bodies, including the National Alliance of Journalists (NAJ), the Network of Women in Media India (NWMI) and the EGI, also expressed “grave reservations” against the proposed Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill 2023, which they described as a “gateway to censorship” and expansion into  “a new era of undeclared censorship.” 

India has constantly ranked at the bottom of the Press Freedom Index that Reporters Without Borders (RSF) – a global media watchdog – prepares and releases annually. The May 2024 release put India at 159 of 176 countries, two ranks above last year’s. This improvement, however, was not on account of any improvement in the situation in India. 

India “was pushed up two places despite recently adopting more draconian laws. Its new position is still unworthy of a democracy”,  said the RSF note on the latest ranking. It added, “With violence against journalists, highly concentrated media ownership, and political alignment, press freedom is in crisis in ‘the world’s largest democracy’.”

While the majority of India’s mainstream TV news channels have earned the reputation of competing with each other in pro-government propaganda – earning them the moniker of Godi or lapdog media – journalists questioning the government have faced action from various law enforcement authorities. 

Take the case of Prabir Purkayastha, the founder of NewsClick, a Left-leaning digital media outlet known for its coverage critical of the Modi government. 

NewsClick was already facing government proceedings over alleged financial irregularities since 2021 but the court had restrained the police from taking coercive measures.

In October 2023, two months after a New York Times investigation alleged that the portal received funds from a US-based pro-China organisation, the government raided its premises and the residences of journalists associated with it and even those who had contributed to the portal. 

Purkayastha and other staff members were arrested in October 2023 under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. They were accused of receiving illegal funding from China to undermine India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. 

All major journalists’ organisations, including the EGI, the Press Club of India (PCI) and Digipub expressed concerns over the raids. The EGI said it was worried the raids were intended to “create a general atmosphere of intimidation under the shadow of draconian laws.” Recently, the Supreme Court of India declared Purkayastha’s arrest illegal and void. 

NewsClick is not alone in facing government action. Since 2018, there have been at least 44 incidents of cases, summons, or notices to media houses and journalists by central agencies, Newslaundry, a media-monitoring site, reported in 2023. 

Nine of these cases were linked to the income tax department, 15 to the Enforcement Directorate, and 20 involved the National Investigation Agency (NIA). While the first two organisaions concern themselves with financial corruption, the last specialises in terror investigations, according to the report. Newslaundry itself had its office premises raided and its journalists grilled by the tax authorities.

In the words of one journalist facing police cases, “Maintaining journalistic independence costs a lot in present-day India, particularly the mental and financial stresses of taking on power.”