With each passing year India is increasingly becoming a very dangerous place for journalists to work. As per the latest data collected by the Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG), 194 journalists, including seven women journalists, were targeted across India by the state agencies, non-state political actors and criminals, and the armed opposition groups (AOG) during 2022. What is worrying is that, of them, 103 journalists were targeted by the state actors and 91 journalists were targeted by the non-state actors, including political activists. Press freedom is going down day by day in India.
The present regime at the Centre is very intolerant towards criticism. Not only journalists, even activists have paid a heavy price for raising voice against the government. In a democracy, the duty of the government of the day is to protect the freedom of the press and the freedom of expression. The BJP government’s intolerance towards the press again got highlighted during the recent visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the United States of America. During a press briefing, US-based journalist Sabrina Siddiqui asked PM Modi a question on human rights issues. Soon after that, BJP supporters started to bully her online. So much so that the White House strongly condemned the bullying. The image of the country has taken a beating from the incident.