New Delhi, July 5 (TNS): With seven Indian journalists killed in the last 18 months, media watchdog Reporters without Borders (RSF) has expressed an “alarm” about the country.
“In 2017, the deaths of at least three journalists killed in connection with their work were recorded, and a fourth case is still under investigation. In 2018, four journalists were killed in the country in the first six months,” the RSF has said in its “Incident Report” released on 4 July.
The report also mentions a sharp rise in “online abuse and harassment”.
“In addition, there has been a sharp increase in online abuse and harassment, and in the self-censorship which looms over the environment in which journalists carry out their work in ‘the world’s largest democracy’,” says RSF.
RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi informing him of this Incident Report and urging him to take “urgent action”.
In its letter sent on July 3, the RSF notes that “in the first six months of 2018, at least as many reporters were killed as for the whole of 2017, while hate speech directed toward journalists has increased massively, causing serious concern for their safety”.
The RSF report — an ‘alarm’ about the “deterioration of press freedom in India” — is the first the organisation has prepared for any country.
The Incident Report, released in the wake of an “increase in breaches of press freedom in India” in the past six months, examines the country’s ranking in the World Press Freedom Index, a global benchmark for media freedom.
According to the RSF, an Incident Report is issued “when events are observed that could affect a country’s ranking based on one or more of the indicators that are used in the evaluation for the World Press Freedom Index”.
The RSF comes out with an annual World Press Freedom Index and India is currently placed at 138th position in the list of 180 countries — 2 spots down from its 2017 ranking.
The report released warned that India risked falling further down on the index.
