0
0
Dakshita Ojha
The World Press Freedom Index introduced the list on 3 May, in which the Indian press
ranked 161 position, whereas in 2022 Indian press was ranked at 150 position. Pakistan
and Afghanistan press has been ranked above the Indian press, as they are ranked 150
and 152 respectively. As the time is passing, the rank of Indian press is getting lower as it
slipped from rank 21 to rank 140 in 2014.
Being a democratic country media is mentioned as the fourth pillar of our Indian
democracy other than the three which is the executive, the legislative and the judiciary,
as our media holds transparency and accountability, but as the rank is going down
sometimes the citizens of India even gets doubtful by seeing the condition of our media
house that is it really getting corrupt or there are some other reasons which is affecting
the freedom of media house, press and journalist.
On 14 Feb, IT raids on the offices of BBC India in Delhi and Mumbai, the takeover of
NDTV by Adani Group, and the shutdown of Amnesty International 2020, these acts
shows how much freedom of press is getting affected.
The reasons by which the freedom of press is getting affected could be the law and order
of our country and even the misuse of our legal framework can be a reason as
sometimes the public authority uses the law to protect their actions and sometimes the
journalist get scared by this law, as it can affect their job and status in the society.
Such as our media house and journalist are scared of defamation, for example if in the
society they expose someone and declare the person as guilty based on the evidence.
and facts but if the court declares that person as innocent then the person can file
defamation against the media house and the journalist, which somehow affect the
fairness of the media as they are afraid in telling the truth or reality, this could be
probably a reason for the press freedom.
Other than this, sedition, contempt of court, officials secret act, national security, and
other than the legal framework, the political context or the muscle power, and the
economic powers which deeply affect the freedom of press in India.
India has a huge media industry as we have 10,000 newspapers and almost 400 TV
channels working in current time, but then also it is affected by some people who
empower the content of media.
In the list, Norway has been ranked 1st position followed by Ireland and Denmark 2nd
and 3rd position respectively.
