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On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day (3rd May 2023) World press freedom index 2023 was published by Reporters without borders. The most astonishing development coming out of the report was that India ranked 161 out 180 countries with a score of 36.62. In 2022, India ranked 150. The shock does not end here as when we turn to look at how some of our neighboring countries have fared in this index, the concern just rises with regards to the functionality of our constitutional democracy. In the WPFI 2023 Bhutan ranks 90, Srilanka ranks 135, Pakistan 150, Afghanistan 152 and Bangladesh ranks 163. This is most relevant to discuss today as many print, electronic and especially some of the digital news platform have been effected by frequent raids or survey by IT, ED and various other law enforcement agencies under the backdrop of violating foreign funding norms (FCRI). Recent case of Newsclick is just an addition to the several such instances that have occurred in the past. The state is always responsible for acting upon any irregularities that leads to anti national activities or instances that causes harm to constitutional values. However the state needs to act responsibly and uphold the morals of transparency in the legal process. The most important observation to highlight here is that in none of these alleged raids or surveys so far the alleged charges against these organizations have been proven in the court of law. The larger conclusion then arises is whether these measures by the dispensation were motivated to intimidate and tame certain media institutions.
Freedom of speech and expression is fundamental to a functional and robust democracy. Constitutional democracy always rely on its fourth pillar the ‘media’ for keeping a proactive check on the working of the political executive. Our Indian constitution also upholds the value of freedom of speech and expression under ‘Article 19’. However the freedom of speech certainly comes with some restriction or restrain for the purpose of protecting rights of the society as collective over the Individual rights. A free and Independent media always serves the interest of the citizens of the nation and not to the vested motives of political parties in power. The sooner we as citizens realize this the better it would be for the health of our democracy.
Time has come to examine and investigate the effectiveness of FCRI and possibilities of misuse of FCRI norms. Any kind of irregularities in procuring illegitimate funding through foreign sources needs to be handled with some hardcore evidence based action. Measures taken on the basis of some flimsy grounds will only raise eyebrows to suggest any motivated interest. It is also equally important to mention that as the government is fairly concerned about irregularities in procurement of FDI by some prominent media agencies, the concerns fairly suppose to arise regarding the means and sources of political parties funding through electoral bonds. Health of a democracy is determined by transparency and accountability, both of which seems to be missing in the present scenario. While there is so much of curiosity about scrutinizing the working of some of the prominent digital news portal, there should be equal curiosity about the funding received by several media institutions in form of government ads.
In the recent past there have been several reports that were published by Hindenburg Research and OCCRP (Organized crime and corruption reporting project) regarding alleged financial irregularities pertaining to Adani group but no stern investigation has been so far carried by the esteemed law enforcement agencies. Our democracy is going through a strange times where the one who ask question becomes the culprit of all crimes. Our democracy is on a ventilator where normalcy is just uncertain to be restored.
Dr. Kunwar Siddarth Dadhwal
Assistant Professor
Chitrakoot School of Liberal Arts
Shoolini University Solan (H.P)
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.