The Big Story: Fourth estate

Amongst 180 countries ranked on the Reporters Sans Frontières’ Press Freedom Index, India ranks an abysmal 138th. Last year it was ranked 136th. India might be the world’s most populous democracy, but the state of press freedom in the country raises troubling questions about the health of the nation.

India is no picnic for journalists. Since 1992, 64 journalists have been killed in India making it, according to one report, the most “dangerous nation” for the press after Iraq and Syria. This is especially acute for journalists reporting from India’s mofussil towns and writing in Indian languages, where their reportage often directly threatens local power brokers.

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However, what seems to have changed in the past few years is that the climate of hate against journalists now often flows from the very top, with powerful politicians publicly attacking the press. “Any investigative reporting that annoys the ruling party or any criticism of Hindutva, an ideology that blends Hindu nationalism with an almost fascistic rhetoric, elicits a torrent of online insults and calls for the death of the reporter or writer responsible, most of it coming from the prime minister’s troll army,” Reporters Sans Frontières notes.

The 2017 murder of Gauri Lankesh, a journalist from Karnataka, the report says, shows how “verbal violence has tragically led to physical violence”. Lankesh had been long attacked by Right-Wing Hindutva proponents. Initial investigations have pointed to radical Hindutva outfits as the main suspect in the murder. Troublingly, Lankesh’s killing did not lead to introspection but resulted in even more threats. One Bharatiya Janata Party MLA claimed that Lankesh would have been alive if she had not criticised the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent body of the BJP. In another case, a prominent Hindutva social media user, follower by the prime minister on Twitter, tweeted to celebrate Lankesh’s death, calling her a “bitch who had died a dog’s death”. “Hit lists” of other journalists were circulated.

This climate of hate and denigration of journalism extends down from Delhi to other ruling dispensations in the states. Five journalists were killed in India in 2017. Only last month, a Madhya Pradesh journalist Sandeep Sharma, was run over by a dumper truck in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhind. His family claims that this was in connection with his work exposing how the local administration is colluding in illegal sand mining but the legal investigation into his death is stuck in a limbo.

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Unsurprisingly, the Committee to Protect Journalists ranks India 13th in its global impunity index, which highlights countries where murders of journalists are least likely to see justice. According to the Committee, not even a single murder of a journalist has been solved in the past decade.

India is justifiably proud of its democracy – a system of government that is rare in a country so poor. Yet, no democracy can survive without the constant vigilance of an active press, which can hold power to account and ensure that politicians always keep looking over their shoulder. The powers-that-be who are attacking journalists for short-term personal gains must realise the long-term harm they are doing to the country.

The Big Scroll

  • One month after Bhind journalist’s suspicious death, the investigation is stuck in limbo, reports Abhishek Dey from Madhya Pradesh.
  • For India’s docile media, Anu Kumar has a lesson in press freedom from 18th century Calcutta.

Punditry

  • India’s fiscal architecture will have to navigate tension between the imperatives of redistributive transfers and rewarding efficient development, writes Yamini Aiyar in the Hindustan Times.
  • Justice Sachar’s principles stood firm and were his guiding light till his last days, recounts Seema Chisti in the Indian Express.
  • Ahead of the Modi-Xi meeting, in the Hindu, Suhasini Haidar looks at the mixed record of grand summitry.

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Don’t Miss

With Madhya Pradesh headed for Assembly elections later this year, political leaders are going out of their way to visit temples and ashrams, reports Anita Katyal.

Though such visits have become routine, Kamal Nath and Jyotiraditya Scindia have a special reason to seek the blessings of influential religious heads in their home state. Both are lobbying to be projected as the Congress’ chief ministerial face in the year-end polls but no decision has been made by Rahul Gandhi. With a little over six months to go for the elections, there is an air of desperation in both camps as supporters of the two leaders mount increasing pressure on the leadership to put an end to the suspense.

While the official word is still awaited, speculation is rife that 71-year-old Nath may be the favoured one in view of his seniority and managerial skills. This follows Nath’s meeting with Rahul Gandhi, who is learnt to have told the senior leader that he would soon take a view on the leadership issue.