India Archives - Committee to Protect Journalists

Indian paramilitary soldiers use their cellphones in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, on October 14, 2019 after the partial lifting of a communications lockdown in place since India's government downgraded the region's semi-autonomy in August. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

India uses opaque legal process to suppress Kashmiri journalism, commentary on Twitter

October 24, 2019 1:30 AM EDT

On August 10, 2018, the Indian government informed Twitter that an account belonging to Kashmir Narrator, a magazine based in Jammu and Kashmir, was breaking Indian law. The magazine had recently published a cover story on a Kashmiri militant who fought against Indian rule. By the end of the month, Indian police had arrested the…

An Indian paramilitary trooper stands guard on a road in Srinagar, Kashmir's largest city, on September 7, 2019. Since the government stripped the region of its limited autonomous status and imposed a communication blackout in early August, Kashmir’s news media has faced a deep existential crisis. (AFP/Tauseef Mustafa)

Kashmir’s news media faces existential crisis amid restrictions, arrests

September 24, 2019 12:54 PM EDT

On August 5, the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a strict communication blackout in Jammu and Kashmir after stripping the state of its limited autonomous status under the Indian constitution. A month later as the restrictions continued, CPJ India Correspondent Kunal Majumder traveled to Srinagar, Kashmir’s largest city, to speak to local…

Indian security personnel check the identity of a motorist during a curfew in Srinagar on August 8, 2019, as widespread restrictions on movement and a telecommunications blackout are in place after the Indian government stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomy. (AFP/Tauseef Mustafa)

In Kashmir, obstruction, confiscated equipment, and hand-carrying stories and photos on flash drive

August 8, 2019 5:20 PM EDT

“You are from the press, you are not allowed,” a local Kashmiri news editor says Indian security forces told him yesterday at one of the dozens of checkpoints set up across the region.

Newspaper vendors collect copies of the papers in Srinagar, in July 2016. The Kashmir Times, one of the oldest papers in Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir, is suffering under a nearly 10-year ban on government advertising. (AP/Mukhtar Khan)

Kashmir Times feels the strain of government advertising ban

June 26, 2019 5:38 PM EDT

In a Q&A with CPJ, Anuradha Bhasin, the executive editor of Kashmir Times, talks about the impact a government advertising ban on the daily has had on the way its journalists are able to report the news.

Election officials open a seal on a voting machine at a counting centre in Srinagar in May 2019. CPJ met with journalists across India to discuss the safety challenges of covering India's elections. (AFP/Tauseef Mustafa)

Results of India’s election climate for journalist safety are in

May 23, 2019 3:47 PM EDT

Journalists across India are at risk of physical and digital attack in retaliation for their reporting. And during election campaigns, these dangers can increase. As the country went to the polls in recent weeks, CPJ’s India correspondent Kunal Majumder traveled to Guwahati, Imphal, Agartala, Raipur, Bijapur, and Hyderabad to present CPJ’s election safety kit to…

Voters queue to cast their vote outside a polling station during the final phase of general election in Chandigarh, India on May 19, 2019. Journalists report online harassment and disinformation during the campaign. (REUTERS/Ajay Verma)

Journalists fighting fake news during Indian election face threats, abuse

May 21, 2019 1:15 PM EDT

The six-week-long voting period in India’s national and provincial elections concluded this week, with results expected on Thursday, according to news reports. For journalists, the campaign has brought a familiar deluge of online abuse.

Voters line up at a polling station in Sukma in Chhattisgarh state on November 12, 2018. The state's newly elected state minister is setting up a committee to draft a journalist safety law. (AFP)

Chhattisgarh’s plan for journalist safety law could be template for all India

February 15, 2019 12:32 PM EST

Every day for two years, freelance journalist Santosh Yadav must walk the 50 or so yards from his home to the Darbha village police station in Bastar, Chhattisgarh, to sign a register. Just one missed day could immediately land him back in prison as he awaits trial on anti-terror charges. A police commander said that…