Free speech in crisis as questions are silenced

IN the charged atmosphere of today’s India, many questions seem like invitations for punishment, for which the penalty can be severe. The killing of journalists and their arrests and detentions for posts on social media and attacks, threats and censorship of content are among the staggering range of free speech violations reported in the first four months of 2025.

The spate of takedowns and the blocking of websites like The Wire and social media accounts on 'X', including that of Kashmir Times editor Anuradha Bhasin, website Maktoob Media and various Youtube channels, in the wake of the Indian government's air strikes against certain locations in Pakistan and PoK have only worsened the climate of censorship.

On May 6, barely three days after World Press Freedom Day and hours before the launch of the air strikes, senior journalist and former editor of The Kashmir Reader, Hilal Mir, was detained in Srinagar. A press statement from the Counter-Intelligence Kashmir (CIK) described him as "one Radical Social Media user" who allegedly promoted "disaffection and secessionist ideology."

Similar charges were used against satirists and social media influencers, including Bhojpuri singer Neha Singh Rathore and Madri Kakoti, aka Dr Medusa, and Shamita Yadav, aka The Ranting Gola. Rathore got some relief as a civil court in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, dismissed a complaint against her.

The charge of endangering national security was made against YouTube news channel 4PM News. Its owner and editor-in-chief Sanjay Sharma was just informed, via an email from YouTube, that the channel had been closed as per "government's directions."

All of them had raised trenchant questions about security lapses in the wake of the Pahalgam attack.

The lack of legal redress or even the fig leaf of self-regulatory processes in a time of conflict, when disinformation is given a free rein, add to the information black hole. The chilling effect of such actions cannot be understated.

The 330 instances of free speech violations in the Free Speech Collective's (FSC) Tracker reveal the extreme intolerance — that permeates every level of society — towards voices of dissent.

Vandalism indulged in and criminal complaints lodged by politically motivated sections of society show the targeting of academics, students, stand-up comics, satirists, actors and film-makers alike.

Violence is the default mode for the outrage factory — whether it was in the case of the airing of 'Naya Bharat', a show by stand-up comic Kunal Kamra, or the screening of the film Chhaava or the attack on Dalit journalist Sanjay Ambedkar while he was seeking audience reviews of the film Phule in Prayagraj for his YouTube channel Bheemraj Dastak.

Meanwhile, impunity continued, as the killings of journalists Mukesh Chandrakar and Raghvendra Bajpai reveal. In both cases, the police initially dismissed the killings as unrelated to their journalism.

Journalists first reported the disappearance of Chandrakar on January 1 at Bastar in Chhattisgarh. Three days later, his body was found in the septic tank of a road contractor, Suresh Chandrakar, who is also Mukesh's cousin. He was reportedly angry that Mukesh was part of a report on poor road conditions which was aired on a prominent news channel on December 25, 2024.

Bajpai was allegedly killed by hired shooters on March 8 at Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh to reportedly silence him from publishing a report on the alleged sexual assault of a minor by a temple priest.

Notably, all journalists arrested this year are associated with independent YouTube media channels.

Pogadadanda Revathi, managing director of online news channel Pulse News, and Thanvi Yadav, a reporter with the channel, were arrested at 5 am on March 12 in Hyderabad for broadcasting allegedly abusive content against Chief Minister Revanth Reddy.

Dilwar Hussain Mozumder, a reporter with independent news outlet The CrossCurrent, was arrested on March 25 in Guwahati for reporting on a protest about financial irregularities in the state-run Assam Cooperative Apex Bank.

YouTube commentator and journalist Tushar Abaji Kharat was arrested on March 9 in Mumbai for airing allegedly defamatory content about the state's Rural Development Minister, Jaykumar Gore.

Interestingly, the chief ministers of the states in which the journalists were arrested — Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis and Telangana CM Revanth Reddy — have denied any violation of press freedom. Rather, they have questioned the credentials of journalists working for independent and online news portals.

While Sarma took to 'X' to "clarify that the Assam police has not arrested any journalist in recent times", Fadnavis said the journalist was indulging in "extortion." Reddy went a step further, threatening "so-called journalists" in a speech on the floor of the state Assembly and calling for them to be stripped and beaten in public.

Meanwhile, government regulations detrimental to media freedom continue. The Maharashtra government is intent on pushing its draconian Maharashtra Public Security Bill. This is despite protests from journalists and civil society organisations that its broad definitions for unlawful activity were liable for misuse against legitimate journalistic work and criminalise journalists.

At the same time, film censorship, pushed through by both the authorities and vigilante groups, has continued. The enforced self-censorship of films like Empuraan and Phule, with crucial scenes and dialogues cut on the eve of, or after the film's release, make a mockery of the certification awarded by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). The multiple cuts suggested for Punjab 95, cuts on foreign films screened for Indian audiences on OTT platforms and the denial of CBFC certification for award-winning films like Santosh are other signals of excessive regulation.

In the face of this rampant censorship and clamping down on inconvenient truths that do not fit the official narrative, there is a pushback by civil rights organisations, journalists' unions and associations. The constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of speech and expression must be preserved, failing which the information war will be won by falsehood and silence.