Talk: Harassment, surveillance and violence - Journalism in Modi’s India | Reporters Without Borders
Channel: Reporter ohne Grenzen
Date: 2021-11-17

India is often referred to as the world's largest democracy and is also treated as such on the political playing field. In RSF’s 2021 World Press Freedom Index however, the country ranks 142nd out of a total of 180 states. Recently, the Indian government's alleged use of the Pegasus spyware against journalists attracted international media attention. In addition to state surveillance, media professionals have to face police violence and attacks by members of radical political and religious groups. Threats and reprisals by corrupt politicians endanger the work of local reporters in particular. 

In 2021 alone, three journalists have been murdered, and last year at least four reporters were killed in connection with their investigations. Legal harassment has become a weapon of choice for local authorities and high-ranking national politicians suing critical media representatives into silence. Radical supporters of the government form troll armies on social media, targeting especially women journalists with online hate campaigns. In 2021, India also reached a historical lowpoint imposing the longest Internet shutdown ever recorded in a democracy: For more than one and a half years, the population of Jammu and Kashmir was denied access to the Internet.

What are the connections between these threats and the Hindu nationalist ideology that is further entrenching itself since the re-election of Prime Minister Modi in 2019? How do media professionals deal with a government that maintains a democratic image to the outside world while exercising political censorship towards national media?
These and other questions will be discussed by:

Siddharth Varadarajan, founder and editor-in-chief of the independent news portal The Wire. An internationally awarded investigative journalist, Varadarajan not only incurred numerous strategic defamation lawsuits because of his research work, he is also one of those who contributed intensively to the exposure of the Pegasus espionage attacks against journalists, after he and at least four other Indian journalists from The Wire were themselves the target of espionage attacks.

Rituparna Chatterjee Journalist, author and RSF India representative Rituparna Chatterjee (tbc)

Moderation: Lisa Dittmer, Advocacy Officer for Internet Freedom at Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Germany.

The event will be held in English.
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Reporter ohne Grenzen: Recherchieren, Anklagen, Unterstützen - Reporter ohne Grenzen dokumentiert Verstöße gegen die Presse- und Informationsfreiheit weltweit und alarmiert die Öffentlichkeit, wenn Journalisten und deren Mitarbeiter in Gefahr sind. Wir setzen uns für mehr Sicherheit und besseren Schutz von Journalisten ein. Wir kämpfen online wie offline gegen Zensur, gegen den Einsatz sowie den Export von Überwachungstechnik und gegen restriktive Mediengesetze. 
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