India / Asia

New Delhi, November 3, 2025—Indian authorities must take immediate steps to guarantee the safety of journalist and Washington Post columnist Rana Ayyub and her family, after she received multiple threats via her phone from someone who knew her home address, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. “The threats of violence made against Rana Ayyub…

New Delhi, September 29, 2025—Indian authorities must conduct a comprehensive and transparent investigation into the death of journalist Rajeev Pratap, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Monday. “Authorities in Uttarakhand state should not discount any possible causes of Rajeev Pratap’s death, including his family’s serious allegation that he was targeted for his journalism,” said…

A new tax law in India that grants authorities sweeping powers to access emails, cloud accounts, and encrypted devices during searches has generated widespread concern among journalists and digital rights advocates, while adding to a raft of tax legislation around the world that could be weaponized against the media.  India’s parliament on August 12 passed…

New Delhi, September 18, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by a directive from Indian authorities ordering the removal of dozens of allegedly defamatory media items about Adani Enterprises and calls on the government to stop censoring legitimate reporting on powerful business interests. On September 16, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting ordered…

New Delhi, September 4, 2025—Ahead of the eighth anniversary of Indian journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder, the Committee to Protect Journalists urges the Karnataka state government to push for the establishment of a fast-track court to bring her killers to justice. Lankesh, who published and edited Bengaluru-based Gauri Lankesh Patrike, a Kannada-language weekly known for its…

New Delhi, September 2, 2025—Indian authorities should appeal the acquittal of three men accused of the 2016 murder of journalist Rajdev Ranjan, including the police’s suspected mastermind, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday, following an August 30 ruling in which three other men were found guilty. “The Bihar state government and federal investigators must…

New Delhi, August 20, 2025—Two police branches in northeastern Indian state of Assam opened separate criminal investigations into Siddharth Varadarajan, editor for independent news website The Wire, its entire editorial team, including Hindi language editor Ashutosh Bhardwaj and contributor Karan Thapar, and the outlet’s parent company, the Foundation for Independent Journalism (FIJ). The investigations are…

New Delhi, August 1, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges the chief minister of the western state of Maharashtra to take immediate action to protect Indian journalist Sneha Barve, who received fresh death threats on July 24, three weeks after a brutal assault. “It is outrageous that journalist Sneha Barve, who was nearly killed for…

New Delhi, July 15, 2025—Authorities in India’s western state of Maharashtra must bring all of journalist Sneha Barve’s attackers to justice and take decisive steps to ensure press members can safely do their jobs, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.  Barwe, the founder of the Samarth Bharat Pariwar YouTube-based news channel, was brutally beaten July 4…

New Delhi, July 10, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for greater transparency and due process in how Indian authorities handle social media restrictions, following reports of the temporary block of multiple international news organizations’ X accounts over the weekend. X accused the Indian government of censoring the press.  “This incident once again underscores the serious lack of transparency and…