The press and media in India have had an enviable record in our country regarding informing citizens, asking the right questions to those in power and sharing different perspectives regarding various issues confronting the nation. This record added lustre to India’s crown of being the largest democracy in the world. However, things deteriorated dramatically in the last decade, and press freedom became the first casualty in the fast-changing media landscape.
The World Press Freedom Index is published annually by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). It evaluates nations based on political, economic, legislative, social, and security factors that impact media freedom. The World Press Freedom Index 2025 was released recently, and once again, we are at a dismal rank of 151 out of 180 nations. With a score of 32.96, we fall in the “very serious” category. It broadly means that those who practise journalism in our country are handicapped in “media autonomy, acceptance of journalistic diversity, and support for holding power to account”.
There is “censorship, judicial sanctions, restrictions on access to information, and impunity for violence against journalists and reporters”. There exist “constraints from government policies, non-state actors, and media owners”.
We also score poorly on journalists’ ability to report without risk of psychological distress, bodily and professional harm. The latest example of restrictive government policy on ‘press freedom’ is the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDPA). Given the steadily deteriorating state of press freedom in India, it is important for a sustained movement to save the Indian media (or whatever is left of it) and to enable it to keep discharging its role as the “watchdog” of democracy.
India’s Declining Press Freedom: A Global Perspective
India’s rank of 151 in 2025 is an improvement from 159 in 2024 and 161 in 2023. But still, we lag behind most of our South Asian neighbours, such as Nepal (90) and the Maldives (104). The saving grace is that countries like Pakistan (158), Myanmar (169), Afghanistan (175), and China (178) are ranked below us.
The RSF World Press Freedom Index 2025 highlights economic pressures as a major threat to journalism. Media organisations are struggling against big tech, led by Google and Meta. They have entered the news media in a big way and tend to monopolise advertising revenues. In India, the situation is grim when it comes to “press freedom” as, besides this global trend of ‘big-tech dominance’, media ownership has slowly been taken over by the corporate or those business houses who have monopolies in their respective domains and are extremely close to the political establishment. This leads to sustained political interference that stifles dissenting voices and makes the Indian media channels virtual spokespersons for the government.
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act: A Looming Threat
The Press Club of India (PCI) submitted a memorandum to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology regarding the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA). They flagged the act as a threat to press freedom. The DPDPA was passed in August 2023 but has yet to be enforced.
The Act contains several clauses that allegedly violate constitutional guarantees under Articles 19(1)(a) (freedom of speech) and 19(1)(g) (right to practise a profession). The PCI memorandum argues that the Act contains vague terms such as “Data Fiduciary,”“Data Processor,”and “Personal Data”. The ambiguity surrounding them could entangle journalists in legal complications for routine reporting tasks. For example, naming an individual in a news story might classify a journalist as a “data fiduciary” requiring consent, while using spreadsheets could deem them a “data processor.”
Sections 5 and 6 of the DPDPA mandate detailed consent for handling personal data. This would become impossible to follow during fast-paced events like riots or corruption investigations. Sections 28 and 36 grant the Data Protection Board and the government legal access to journalists’ data. This would seriously jeopardise investigative journalism by exposing the confidential sources of the journalist.
DPDPA also amends the Right to Information (RTI) Act, disallowing journalists to access personal data in the public interest.
Concentration of Media Ownership
One of the main reasons for our poor ranking in the press freedom index is the concentration of media ownership. Right now, it is in the hands of a few corporates and political magnates. Credible sources point out that Mukesh Ambani, of the Reliance and JIO Group, controls over 70 media outlets that reach and influence more than 800 million Indians.
Gautam Adani Group’s acquisition of NDTV in 2022 is one more example of this trend. Such concentration of ownership impacts the presence of diverse viewpoints. There is only one version while reporting events and issues, which is closely aligned with what makes the government happy and synchronises with corporate interests.
This has led to the rise of godi/pliant media that specialise in practising sensationalism and yellow journalism. There is little genuine ground reporting and investigative journalism. Most often, official government narratives are parroted, and the opposition hounded and blamed for all the ills that afflict the nation.
Harassment and Intimidation of Journalists
It is difficult for independent-minded journalists to flourish in India. Particularly for those who are critical of the government and do not hesitate to call a spade a spade. They face various challenges like online trolling, legal harassment, losing employment and sometimes arbitrary arrests.
Recent examples that come to mind are the News Minute team, the senior journalists during the Pegasus scam, SidheeqKappan, Prashant Kanojia, Rana Ayyub, Arfa Khanum Sherwani, Abhisar Sharma, Prasun Bajpai, Ravish Kumar and Pranoy Roy.
Draconian laws and threats to national security are used to silence dissenting voices. This creates an atmosphere of fear, intimidation and self-censorship.
The Way Forward: Safeguarding Press Freedom
Speaking to Karan Thapar, senior journalist, P Sainath gave a stirring piece of advice on how we can revive Indian media. He said, “Today, India is governed by a coalition of socio-religious fundamentalists and economic market fundamentalists, with corporate media serving as their common platform. To uplift Indian journalism, we must legislate diversity and pluralism in media representation. Despite 69% of India’s population living in rural areas, national newspapers allocate less than 1% of front-page coverage to rural issues, and few employ rural correspondents. A truly free press must highlight society’s injustices and structural weaknesses.
“However, our media often overlooks critical issues – like Dalit student suicides at premier institutions or the ongoing agrarian crisis – reducing them to superficial explanations like exam stress instead of addressing caste or social discrimination. We must also raise alarms about worsening inequality, which now mirrors colonial-era levels. It’s time to move beyond the cliché of “speaking truth to power,” which wrongly assumes power is unaware. Instead, we must speak truth about power – acknowledging that those in power already understand the truth but choose to ignore or suppress it.”