Oligarchs Linked to PM Modi Own Media Outfits in India: RSF
Oligarchs Linked to PM Modi Own Media Outfits in India: RSF
RSF says that Modi has an army of supporters who track down all online reporting regarded as critical of the government and wage horrific harassment campaigns against the sources.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) – which defends freedom of journalists in all parts of the world – has reported that media freedom is under severe threat in India.
In the latest 2023 World Press Freedom Index released on May 3, India’s rank on the RSF Index fell from 142 in 2021 to 150 in 2022 to 161 in 2023, which is a manifestation of the fact that press freedom is constantly under state attack.
In another report released on May 3, RSF asserts that all the mainstream media are now owned by wealthy businessmen or oligarchs close to prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi.
This could be the reason that India has become one of the most dangerous places for journalists where they are harassed and killed with impunity. RSF says that the phenomenon which dangerously restricts the free flow of news and information is the acquisition of media outlets by oligarchs with close links with political leaders.
According to RSF, this is particularly the case in “hybrid” regimes such as India, where all the mainstream media are now owned by wealthy businessmen close to PM Modi.
At the same time, RSF says, Modi has an army of supporters who track down all online reporting regarded as critical of the government and wage horrific harassment campaigns against the sources. Caught between these two forms of extreme pressure, many journalists are, in practice, forced to censor themselves, RSF said in its report.
It further says that North Korea, China, Vietnam, Myanmar – Asia’s one-party states and dictatorships – are the ones that constrict journalism most, regimes with leaders who have continued to tighten their totalitarian grip on the public discourse.
Starting with Xi Jinping, who secured a historic third term as China’s leader with a concentration of power without precedent since Mao Zedong, and has used it to pursue the crusade he launched against journalism ten years ago.
With the result that China is the world’s biggest jailer of journalists and press freedom defenders, closely followed by Myanmar, which has become a black hole for news and information ever since the military seized total control in a coup on 1 February 2021.
RSF concludes in its report that excessive, overly concentrated power is the main obstacle to journalistic freedom and it is when political, economic, and judicial powers are balanced and regulated that press freedom can fully flourish.
