Has Indian press freedom reached its breaking point?

The facts came to light after Roy was spotted protesting the wrongful arrest and raids on journalists at the Press Club of India. She prominently sat at the front of the room wearing a ‘Free The Press’ sign around her neck.

With the lock on NewsClick’s Delhi office and bizarre questions asked during interrogations – like if they had called a US-registered phone number, about their thoughts on certain politically sensitive topics – India’s governmental machinery has taken another step towards stifling voices of dissent.

The incumbent party has done this numerous times since it came to power in 2014. In 2023, one of several major incidents took place in February, when income tax officials raided BBC India’s office following the release of a documentary criticizing Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist regime.

Multiple news organizations, NGOs, and civilians who have stood against Modi’s political ideas have been arrested and charged with no tangible basis. Democracy is seemingly waning by the month.

Many of them languish in jail, some of whom die waiting for justice to shine through the darkness.

The arrest of AltNews founder and journalist Mohammed Zubair for allegedly ‘hurting religious sentiments and promoting enmity’ in June last year, and what followed as a consequence both offline and online, is a stark image of today’s reality of what it means to be a journalist in India.

To date, 16 journalists have been charged with UAPA, a law made to curb terrorism and to ensure bail is not provided easily.  In the name of national security, whenever a journalist publishes sentiments that threatens to expose the murky truth, those in power nullify and go on the offensive.

Humble reporters are often labelled as ‘terrorists’ and only two of those charged have managed to break free from it.

Somehow, India ranks 161 out of 188 countries on the World Press Freedom Index for 2023. For the world’s largest democracy to silence journalists by slapping draconian laws on them is seriously concerning and it’s rightfully being touted as an ‘undeclared emergency’.