Media is one of the pillars of democracy and the level of freedom enjoyed by media/press speaks a lot about the democratic nature of the nation.
On Wednesday, the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders released the 2017 world press freedom rankings, as per which India has gone down by three places to 136 in the tally of 180 countries. Last year, India got 133rd ranking and the whole blame goes to “Modi’s nationalism” and increasing “self-censorship” among the mainstream media.
The neighbors of India, Bhutan and Nepal, have fared well in the list with 84th and 100th ranks respectively; however Pakistan is three spot down from India. The report states,
“With Hindu nationalists trying to purge all manifestations of ‘anti-national’ thought from the national debate, self-censorship is growing in the mainstream media.”
The report also talks about the online campaigns that are being carried out to target the media persons. The report further states,
“Prosecutions are also used to gag journalists who are overly critical of the government, with some prosecutors invoking Section 124a of the penal code, under which ‘sedition’ is punishable by life imprisonment. No journalist has so far been convicted of sedition but the threat encourages self-censorship.”
Reporters Without Borders was also concerned about the involvement of social media in the matter of Kashmir and stated that since there is no, “protective mechanism, coverage of sensitive regions continued to be very difficult”.
The first four positions went to Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark while the USA was at the 43rd rank. In fact, Zimbabwe which is being ruled by a dictator, along with large areas of sub-Saharan Africa have scored well in comparison to India.
China, the neighbor of India, got the 176th position and was called, “world’s leading prison for citizen journalists” while as expected, North Korea was last in the list.
Do you think these rankings speak the real truth about journalism? Do let us know your views in the comments section below.
