Behind Bars: Arrests and Detentions of Journalists in India 2010-2020
The year 2020 has been a bad one for journalists in India. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused illness and death, and the lockdown resulted in salary cuts and loss of livelihood due to mass retrenchments effected by media houses. The killing and attacks on journalists have continued unabated. While self-censorship within the media remained an open secret, the government sought to increase regulation of the media, with media policies, funding and administrative mechanisms for online media.
A sharp rise in criminal cases lodged against journalists in
India for their work, with a majority of cases in BJP-ruled states, has
contributed to the deterioration in the climate for free speech in India. In
the last decade, 154 journalists in India were arrested, detained, interrogated
or served show cause notices for their professional work and a little over 40
per cent of these instances were in 2020. Nine foreign journalists faced
deportation, arrest, interrogations or were denied entry into India….