By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, May 6, 2019: India’s press freedom index stood at 140 among 180 countries in the world in 2019, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a media watchdog, said on May 3, the World Press Freedom Day.
India’s rank in 2018 was 138.
According to RSF, only 9 percent of the world — or 43 countries — have press freedom. The media watchdog has rates countries as “good” (white) or “satisfactory” (yellow) in its 2019 World Press Freedom Index. The remaining 91 percent were rated “problematic” (orange), “very serious” (red), and “difficult” (black).
Sixty-six countries were rated problematic, while 52 were very serious, and 18 were considered difficult.
Norway led the countries that enjoy free press, while Turkmenistan was rated as most “difficult,” said the media advocacy group.
“The role of media is to inform truth and nothing but truth. But truth has become the biggest casualty in the last few years,” says Capuchin Father Suresh Mathew, editor of New Delhi-based Indian Currents magazine, reacting to the news about India’s press freedom index.
“Journalists, instead of exposing the government’s failures, are busy mouthing the latter’s version without questions being raised on the veracity of the claims and proofs,” the priest told Matters India.
“TV channels and newspapers, with some exceptions, have taken the role of an amplifier of the government propaganda. They have become cheerleaders of the ruling party and its leaders. Instead of truthful, balanced and objective reporting, people are fed with what the government wants them to read, hear and believe,” laments Father Mathew, who is also general secretary of the Indian Catholic Press Association.
“It will not be exaggerating if someone coins a phrase ‘government embedded journalists’ for the Indian media. Journalists work as if an unforeseen force is controlling their hands and tongues,” Father Mathew added.
John Dayal, a senior journalist and human rights activist, says India now lives in a much worse situation than what it was during the emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in 1975 with a formal press censorship. “Today we have multiple layers of control on the media,” he told Matters India.
Dayal regrets that a handful of “crony capitalists” have bought up much of the major media groups and then ensure that print, electronic and social media are on the side of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“This media conglomeration allows no dissent, reports no opposition statement and editorially targets all political and social opponents of the prime minister,” says Dayal, a former editor, and the former national president of the All India Catholic Union.
“The second is coercion of the few independent media who remain. Most senior journalists have been forced to resign, and many newspapers have closed down. Government and corporate advertising has been stopped.
“The third is the advent of fake news which glorifies Modi and stigmatizes his opponents. There is also a concerted effort to stigmatize religious minorities, especially Muslims and Christians,” he pointed out.
“And finally, the social media are overwhelmed by call centre of the BJP which run a 24×7 campaign to idolise Modi and demonise anyone and everyone who opposes him or poses a challenge,” Dayal said.