At least 134 instances of free speech violations have been reported in the country between January and April, according to a study by the Free Speech Collective published on Wednesday.

The collective monitors, documents and analyses violations of free speech. It also provides support and solidarity to individuals and organisations that face attacks on their freedom of expression.

The free speech violations cited in the report include harassment, attacks, arrests and censorship imposed on journalists, academics, YouTubers, students and other citizens. Instances of legal action and threats against persons and cases of internet shutdowns have also been included among violations of free speech.

According to the report, 34 journalists have been attacked in the country since the beginning of the year.

Among those attacked was journalist Nikhil Wagle, who was chased by a mob on February 9, 2024, when he was on his way to a public meeting in Pune, accompanied by activist Vishwambhar Choudhary and human rights lawyer Asim Sarode. Bharatiya Janata Party workers had thrown ink on the journalist’s car, mobbed and vandalised it at Pune’s Khandoji Baba Chowk.

The report said that a day before the attack on Wagle, 10 journalists were assaulted by a mob in Uttarakhand’s Haldwani, where tensions flared up after the demolition of the Mariyam mosque and the Abdul Razzaq Zakariya madrasa that was built in 2002.

Sanjay Kanera, a 48-year-old photojournalist with the newspaper Amrit Vichar, suffered grievous injuries in Haldwani after he was attacked by a “sharp object on the head”.

The report by the Free Speech Collective lists 12 instances of censorship on news media, including the case of Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s South Asia bureau chief Avani Dias.

Dias said in a social media post on April 23 that she had to leave India abruptly after residing in the country for two years as the BJP-led Central government told her that her “visa extension would be denied” as her reporting had “crossed a line”.

This came weeks after YouTube blocked access in India to an episode of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s news series Foreign Correspondent and a news package on the killing of Canadian Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

In total, 46 instances of censorship spanning social media, news media, academia and the field of entertainment were reported in the country since January.

Just ahead of the Ram temple consecration on January 22, the report noted, around 100 social media accounts were blocked by the Central government.

Several other instances of violence and censorship were also recorded around the time of the consecration. On January 24, seven students of the Film Television Institute of India in Pune were booked for displaying a poster about the 1992 Babri mosque demolition on campus.

This came a day after a Hindutva mob barged into the campus, shouted slogans and set ablaze the banner, which said: “Remember Babri, Death of Constitution”.

The men also allegedly attacked student union President Mankap Nokwoham, General Secretary Sayantan Chakrabarty and two others, including a female student, who had to be hospitalised.

The report pointed out that screenings of the documentary Ram Ke Naam were disrupted in several states in the aftermath of the consecration.

Ram Ke Naam is a National Film Award-winning 1992 documentary by filmmaker Anand Patwardhan about the campaign by Hindutva groups to build a Ram temple at the site of the erstwhile Babri mosque in Ayodhya.

The screening of the documentary was cited as one of the reasons for the two-year suspension of Dalit student and PhD scholar Ramadas Prini Sivanadan from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, according to the report.

Noting the instances, the report said: “The recorded data on free speech issues clearly shows that while openly partisan sections of dominant media echo a dangerously divisive agenda with impunity, independent media faces punitive action and struggles to be heard.”

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