New Delhi: In further bad news for the country’s media, India’s press freedom ranking has fallen to 150 from 142 last year with the latest World Press Freedom Index saying that press freedom is in “crisis in the world’s largest democracy”.
With an average of three or four journalists killed in connection with their work every year, the index placed India as “one of the world’s most dangerous countries” for the media.
According to the report released by Reporters Without Borders, besides India, its neighbors except Nepal have also slid down in the World Press Freedom Index. While Pakistan is at 157th position, Sri Lanka ranks at 146th, Bangladesh at 162nd, and Maynmar at 176th position.
The invasion of Ukraine (106th) by Russia (155th) at the end of February reflects this process, as the physical conflict was preceded by a propaganda war. China (175th), one of the world’s most repressive autocratic regimes, uses its legislative arsenal to confine its population and cut it off from the rest of the world, especially the population of Hong Kong (148th), which has plummeted in the Index.
The best-performing countries that remained on the lists are Norway (1st), Denmark (2nd), Sweden (3rd), and Estonia (4th). The report noted that India has more than one lakh newspapers, including 36,000 weeklies and 380 TV news channels.
(Vinayak)
