The Big Story: Abridged freedom

International media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders released its annual press freedom index on Wednesday, and the results for India are sobering. India dropped three places, down to 136 of the 180 countries on the list. It came in just a few spots ahead of Pakistan, far behind neighbours like Bhutan and Nepal and even countries like Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.

Reporters Without Borders explained why India declined.

“With Hindu nationalists trying to purge all manifestations of ‘anti-national’ thought from the national debate, self-censorship is growing in the mainstream media. Journalists are increasingly the targets of online smear campaigns by the most radical nationalists, who vilify them and even threaten physical reprisals. Prosecutions are also used to gag journalists who are overly critical of the government.” 

Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi has mentioned the dangers faced by journalists in the past, his government has done nothing to act on his stated concerns. Considering that the Reporters Without Borders analysis blames Hindutva supporters for the situation, it is unlikely that the government will pay heed to it.

Nonetheless, it would be worthwhile for it to acknowledge Reporters Without Borders’ evaluation of the situation. If nothing else, the organisation has been consistent in its view. In 2013 for example, the index put India at the 140th position – the lowest it had fallen to since 2002 – and pointed out the increasing impunity for violence against journalists and the censorship of the internet.

Given that background, the organisation’s report on how the threat of sedition charges leads to self-censorship, the lack of protective mechanisms for those covering sensitive areas, the frequent internet shutdowns and the attacks on local media is important.

Defenders of the government routinely insist that comments about dangers to press freedom in India are misplaced because of the existence of news organisations that are critical of the ruling administration. Yet even the most nationalist journalist would admit that there is a huge gap between working in the mainstream press in one of India’s big cities and attempting to do journalism anywhere.

The experience of Scroll’s Malini Subramaniam, who was violently hounded out of Bastar by vigilantes working with in concert with the local authorities, is a reminder of how difficult it is to report from areas where the government would prefer to be shielded from scrutiny. Over the last few years, this danger has even entered big cities, as the attacks on journalists in Delhi’s Patiala House Court Complex in 2016 demonstrated.

Even if the BJP-ruled government is going to do little to combat India’s disturbing press freedom record, it is incumbent upon journalists to at least document and narrate the stories of reporters who are killed, attacked or threatened while doing their work. Sunlight remains the best disinfectant. It is important that the light be allowed to reach places the government would prefer to keep in the dark.

The Big Scroll

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Punditry

  1. There is a clamour for more militarisation of the Naxal-hit portions of Chhattisgarh, says Ashutosh Bharadwaj in The Indian Express. “But consider the facts.”
  2. Banning social media in Kashmir is a useless exercise, that could do more harm than good, writes Vidya Subramanian in the Hindustan Times.
  3. “Pakistani mangoes aren’t delicious enough to be consumed by Pakistanis themselves,” says Shivam Vij in Huffpost. “This is why Pakistan exports more mangoes than India.”
  4. Sidin Vadukut in Mint asks why we know so little about how the government’s efforts to push back against Naxalites have fared, and why that should give pause to those calling for more militarisation.

Giggle

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Soumya Rao explains how India’s love for Labradors and German Shepherds is driving its indigenous dog breeds to extinction.

“The Lut is just one of several dog breeds that have not been seen in living memory, writes Bhaskaran. Based on four decades of research and observation, the author concludes that there are just 25 indigenous Indian dog breeds found today. The reasons for this decline are vast and complex. During the colonial period, British rulers settling into India for the long haul often imported dogs from back home. The arrival of foreign breeds resulted in cross-breeding and there was little government interest in preserving indigenous breeds and trying to keep their gene pool intact. The few Indian rajas who did have dogs as pets were more drawn to foreign breeds. The only attempts to protect Indian breeds were made by British dog enthusiasts, who had taken a particularly fancy to our indigenous dogs, especially those found in the Himalayas.”