London: Increased censorship is crippling India, which has seen the biggest tumble in Asia in terms of media freedom. India is ranked 140th in the 2013 World Press Freedom Index — its lowest ranking since 2002 — because of an “increasing impunity for violence against journalists and because internet censorship continues to grow”.
India has slipped nine
positions on this list with the “government increasingly refusing to grant
citizens the freedom to be informed”. It makes India worse than countries
that are usually considered miserly with freedom of information — Niger, Sierra
Leone, Bosnia, UAE, South Sudan, Chad and Afghanistan.
India has been bracketed under
the category “difficult situation” with regards to freedom of information along
with Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Burma, Iraq and Russia. The report said the
Asian region saw the sharpest deterioration in the climate for those involved
in news and information in 2012.
Four journalists were killed in India — the world’s biggest democracy — in 2012.
Four journalists were killed in India — the world’s biggest democracy — in 2012.
The report, which has for the
first time published a global indicator of worldwide media freedom, says, “In
India, authorities insist on censoring the web and imposing taboos, while
violence against journalists goes unpunished and the regions of Kashmir and
Chhattisgarh become increasingly isolated.” China has been termed as “very
serious situation” and ranked 173rd among countries facing tremendous
censorship.
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