India’s Press Freedom Ranking Improves, but Core Issues Remain

RSF Flags Political Pressure, Media Monopoly and Rising Attacks on Journalists

May 4, 2025

India climbed eight spots in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index, moving from 159 last year to 151 out of 180 countries. The index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), released on May 3—World Press Freedom Day—paints a bleak picture of India’s media environment, describing a deepening crisis that affects how journalism is practised and received across the country.

India has a vast and busy media industry. There are nearly 900 private television channels, half of which focus on news. Doordarshan, the state-run TV network, broadcasts in 23 languages and reaches a wide audience. Print media is also massive, with around 140,000 registered publications, including roughly 20,000 daily newspapers in more than 20 languages. Together, they circulate nearly 400 million copies.

However, younger people are turning away from newspapers and towards digital platforms, especially social media, for news. Radio news, by contrast, is still tightly controlled and limited to the government broadcaster All India Radio. Private radio stations are not allowed to air news bulletins, which means the state holds a monopoly over radio journalism.

The report says that since 2014, there has been an informal but systematic breakdown of media independence. Large media houses have grown even more powerful and are increasingly aligned with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

This is not just ideological alignment—it’s also structural, due to ownership patterns, the report suggests.

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, which owns more than 70 media outlets, reaches an audience of over 800 million people. Ambani is known to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Similarly, Gautam Adani, another ally of the Prime Minister, took over NDTV in 2022—one of the few remaining TV channels that was critical of the government. That takeover was seen as a turning point, marking the near-total erasure of editorial diversity in mainstream television, according to the report.

This has led to the rise of what many call “Godi media” (meaning lapdog media), a term used for news outlets that aggressively support the government, mix news with populist messaging, and avoid holding those in power to account. These media houses often promote narratives that favour the BJP and avoid airing dissenting views, according to RSF.

India’s constitution does not explicitly mention freedom of the press. Instead, it treats it as part of the broader right to freedom of expression. This legal gap allows the government to impose restrictions using older laws inherited from British colonial rule—like sedition and criminal defamation laws, says the report.

In recent years, anti-terror laws have been applied to journalists as well, especially when they report critically on the government or on sensitive issues like Kashmir or communal violence, according to the report, which notes that it’s not just the BJP government that does this—opposition parties and state governments, including those ruled by the Congress party, have also used the law to target journalists.

The government has added new laws in 2023 that give it more direct control over media and digital communication, says the report. These include the Telecommunications Act, the draft Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act. These laws are seen as tools for censorship and surveillance, allowing the state to tighten its grip over news content and the digital ecosystem.

Most Indian media houses survive on advertising money, and a large share of this comes from government advertising. This puts the media in a difficult position: many outlets cannot afford to upset the government, because it could mean losing critical revenue, the report points out. Smaller and independent outlets are especially vulnerable.

Because public advertising is used as a reward or punishment, it becomes a tool of control, according to RSF.

India’s media does not reflect the country’s social diversity, RSF says. Most senior editors and newsroom decision-makers come from upper-caste Hindu backgrounds, it notes. This affects which stories get covered and how they are framed. For example, women appear in less than 15% of talk show panels on major Hindi news channels.

At the same time, Hindu nationalist messaging has become louder, according to the report. Many Hindi-language TV channels give extensive airtime to religious stories, and some of them openly promote hatred against Muslims, it says. However, there are also small but notable exceptions—like Khabar Lahariya, a news outlet entirely run by women from rural, marginalised backgrounds, it clarifies.

India is among the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists, says the report. On average, two to three journalists are killed every year because of their work. Many others face regular threats, both online and offline.

Women journalists face specific risks—especially when they report critically on the government or religious issues, according to the report, which says they are often doxxed (their personal information is leaked), and targeted by coordinated online mobs with threats of violence and sexual abuse.

Journalists reporting on the environment or on Kashmir are also heavily targeted, according to the report. In Kashmir in particular, reporters face police harassment, restrictions on movement, surveillance and prolonged detentions without trial. Several journalists have been jailed for years under “provisional” detention laws, without formal charges, it adds.

The situation in India is part of a broader international trend. “For the first time in the history of the RSF World Press Freedom Index, conditions for journalists are bad in 50% of the world's countries. Of the five indicators that make up the Index, the economic indicator had the steepest fall,” RSF said on social media.

In most countries assessed—160 out of 180—media outlets are financially unstable. Nearly one-third of these countries are seeing newsrooms shut down completely because they can no longer survive. The result is the collapse of independent journalism in many places.

Thirty-four countries have experienced mass media closures, often forcing journalists to flee. These include Nicaragua, Belarus, Iran, Myanmar, Sudan, Azerbaijan and Afghanistan, where political repression and economic collapse go hand in hand. 

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