More than a year after she was forced to leave India, French journalist Vanessa Dougnac on Thursday said that she has been issued a one-year permit to resume work in the country.

“The Government of India has authorised me to resume my profession as a foreign correspondent based in New Delhi,” Dougnac said in a statement.

On February 16, 2024, the journalist said that she had been forced to leave India by the Union government, merely a month after the Ministry of Home Affairs asked her to explain why her Overseas Citizen of India card should not be withdrawn.

Overseas Citizenship of India is an immigration status that allows foreigners of Indian origin to live and work in India indefinitely. If someone loses their Overseas Citizenship of India status, they require a visa to enter India.

On January 18, 2024, the Foreigners Registration Office, which reports to the ministry, issued a notice to Dougnac alleging that her “malicious” work had created a “biased negative perception” of the country.

The notice also alleged that Dougnac’s work could “provoke disorder and disturb peace in certain sections of society”.

The journalist, who is married to an Indian and had been living in the country for 22 years, has covered South Asia from New Delhi for several French publications such as La Croix, Le Point, Le Soir and Le Temps.

“Leaving is not my choice,” Dougnac had said in her February 2024 statement.

Dougnac had pointed out that she was first denied permission to work as a journalist in India in September 2022. She said that the home ministry did not offer any justification for its decision or allow her a hearing.

“Today, I am unable to work and have been unfairly accused of prejudicing the interests of the state,” the journalist had said. “It has become clear that I cannot keep living in India and earning my livelihood. I am fighting these accusations before the competent forums and I have full faith in the legal process. But I can’t afford to wait for its outcome.”

On Thursday, Dougnac said that she was “very pleased” that her professional rights as a journalist to work in India had been reinstated. “As always, I have only ever wanted to do my job as a journalist, with integrity and rigour, in a country I love and respect,” she said.

“With my permit suspended, however, I had to abandon my position as a regional correspondent in India and South Asia for several publications and everything I had built over twenty-five years in Delhi,” Dougnac said.

She added: “I acknowledge and welcome the decision of the Indian authorities and will reflect on my next steps.”

In June, another French reporter, Sébastien Farcis, said that he had been forced to leave the country by the Union government after working in the country for 13 years as his journalism permit had not been renewed.

In April 2024, Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s South Asia bureau chief Avani Dias had left India weeks after being told by the Union government that her visa would not be extended due to her reporting on a Khalistani separatist’s killing.

Dias was told that her “election accreditation would not come through because of an Indian ministry directive”.

According to an Article 14 report, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government has cancelled at least 102 Overseas Citizen of India cards between 2014 and May 2023.

Over 45 lakh persons hold Overseas Citizen of India cards.

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