Press Freedom Index

• India's rank has fallen from 150 in 2022 to 161 amongst 180 countries on the Press Freedom Index 2023.
• India's overall score on the Press Freedom Index further decreased from 41.0 in 2022 to 36.6 in 2026. This effectively translates to a press freedom level of 36%.
• As quoted in the Press Freedom Report in 2022, "The Indian media landscape is like India itself – huge and densely populated – and has more than 100,000 newspapers (including 36,000 weeklies) and 380 TV news channels. But the abundance of media outlets conceals tendencies toward the concentration of ownership, with only a handful of sprawling media companies at the national level. Four dailies share three-quarters of the readership in Hindi, the country's leading language."

RSF’s comments on the political context of press freedom in India

The Indian press used to be seen as fairly progressive but things changed radically in the mid-2010s, when Narendra Modi became prime minister and engineered a rapprochement between BJP and the big families dominating the media. The prime example is undoubtedly the Reliance Industries group led by Mukesh Ambani, now a personal friend of Modi’s, who owns more than 70 media outlets that are followed by at least 800 million Indians. Very early on, Modi took a critical stance vis-à-vis journalists, seeing them as “intermediaries” polluting the direct relationship between himself and his supporters. Indian journalists who are too critical of the government are subjected to all-out harassment and attack campaigns by Modi devotees known as ‘bhakts’.

RSF’s comments on the economic context of press freedom in India

The Indian press is a colossus with feet of clay. The media outlets largely depend on advertising contracts with local and regional governments. At the national level, the central government has seen that it can exploit this to impose its own narrative, and is now spending more than 130 billion rupees a year on ads in the print and online media. Recent years have also seen the rise of “Godi media”– media outlets such as Times Now and Republic TV mix populism and pro-BJP propaganda.

RSF’s comments on the legislative/legal context of press freedom in India

Indian law is protective in theory but charges of defamation, sedition, contempt of court and endangering national security are increasingly used against journalists critical of the government, who are branded as “anti-national.” Journalists who try to cover anti-government strikes and protests are often arrested and sometimes detained arbitrarily.

RSF’s comments on the sociocultural context of press freedom in India

The enormous diversity of Indian society is barely reflected in the mainstream media. For the most part, only Hindu men from upper castes hold senior positions in journalism or are media executives ­– a bias that is reflected in media content. For example, fewer than 15% of the participants in major evening talk shows are women.

RSF’s comments on the security/safety context of press freedom in India

With an average of three or four journalists killed in connection with their work every year, India is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for the media. Journalists are exposed to all kinds of physical violence including police violence, ambushes by political activists, and deadly reprisals by criminal groups or corrupt local officials.

• In comparison to its benchmarked peers, India's performance on the Press Freedom Index in 2023 is only better than that of China, Turkey, and Russia.
• Norway has maintained its top ranking since 2019 with a press freedom score of 95.18 in 2023, followed by Ireland at 89.91.