India blocks journalists’ tweets about violence against Muslims
Three Indian journalists, who spoke to CPJ, said that X, formerly Twitter, blocked their posts about violence against Muslims in response to opaque legal demands from the government in August. Since August 8, the X account of independent journalist Ahmed Khabeer has been blocked in India, he told CPJ by phone. Khabeer published the email…
Reliance Group sues India’s NDTV for US$1 billion over its reporting on Rafale jet deal
New Delhi, October 19, 201– The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on the Indian conglomerate Reliance Group, owned by businessman Anil Ambani, to end its use of excessive civil defamation cases filed against critical news outlets. Reliance Group yesterday filed a civil defamation case seeking Rs10,000 crore (US$1.35 billion) against the privately owned NDTV…
Several Indian journalists receive death threats
New Delhi, September 29, 2017–Authorities in India must move quickly to identify those responsible for sending at least five threats to kill journalists for critical coverage of the government and take steps to ensure the journalists’ security, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
India’s Central Bureau of Investigation raids broadcaster NDTV
Officers of India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on June 5, 2017, searched the New Delhi home of Prannoy Roy, the co-founder and executive chair of NDTV New Delhi Television, one of India’s oldest private media companies, and three other premises in the cities of Mussoorie and Dehradun, CBI spokesman RK Gaur told CPJ, declining…
Police beat Indian journalists protesting assault
New Delhi, May 22, 2017–Police officials should identify and discipline the officers who assaulted dozens of journalists in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata today, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. Journalists at the scene said police assaulted dozens of reporters covering a protest, then forcibly cleared a demonstration the journalists staged to protest their…
Indian news channel suspended for 24 hours
The Indian government on November 4, 2016, ordered NDTV India, a Hindi-language news channel, to stop broadcasting from November 9-10, after a committee in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting found that the channel had revealed “strategically-sensitive information” while covering an attack on an Indian Air Force base in Pathankot in Punjab state in January…
Court reporters beaten by lawyers in latest attack on press freedom in India
Attacks this week against journalists covering a high-profile sedition case have heightened concerns about the state of press freedom in India. CPJ has reported frequently on journalists there coming under attack from police, criminals, politicians, and others. Now lawyers have to be added to the list.
India threatens to suspend TV news channels
India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on August 7, 2015, issued legal notices to three privately owned TV news channels, accusing them of violating broadcast regulations in coverage that was “disrespectful” to the country’s president and “tended to denigrate” the judiciary, according to news reports.
Mission Journal: Challenges for India’s press increase as Modi marks first year in office
“Modi has tightened the screws on information.” This statement from Bangalore-based journalist Subir Ghosh underscores a common challenge repeated to me by several of India’s journalists, who say the space for criticism is shrinking under Narendra Modi’s rule. Since a landslide victory made him leader of the world’s largest democracy nearly one year ago, the…
Amid deadly demonstrations, focus on India police
For the safety of journalists and other people on the streets protesting injustice, Indian police must begin in earnest to address how they respond to demonstrations. One journalist died covering protests that have been taking place across the country following the gang rape of a 23-year old female medical student on a Delhi bus on…