3 May acts as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom and is also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics. Just as importantly, World Press Freedom Day is a day of support for media which are targets for the restraint, or abolition, of press freedom. It is also a day of remembrance for those journalists who lost their lives in the pursuit of a story.
Source: United Nations World Press Freedom Day 3 May
URL: https://www.un.org/en/observances/press-freedom-day
Date visited: 20 April 2026
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“A call to action, resilience, and collective defence of democracy, truth, and academic freedom”
The Anti-Autocracy Handbook is a call to action, resilience, and collective defence of democracy, truth, and academic freedom in the face of mounting authoritarianism. […]
Because open inquiry and dissent are central to science and academia—qualities antithetical to authoritarian control—academia is often among the first targets of autocrats. To help scholars resist authoritarian developments, the handbook highlights both historic and contemporary measures aimed at attacking scholars, their institutional environments, and their scholarship.
The handbook also sets out a framework for action based on personal risk level—low, medium, high, or extreme. This is designed to help scholars think about their own risk and purposefully choose actions in line with it. The handbook considers tools for enhancing digital safety and highlights the importance of ongoing documentation, preserving imperilled data, and creating distributed archives as a defence against erasure. It also calls on scholars to tell their stories—publicly or anonymously—to inspire others, maintain accountability and preserve a historical record.
Accompanying the handbook is a living wiki that will continue to incorporate new developments and provide updates on global efforts by scholars to push back against authoritarianism and safeguard the democratic foundations that enable free inquiry.
Source: “The Anti-Autocracy Handbook: A Scholars’ Guide to Navigating Democratic Backsliding” by
URL: https://zenodo.org/records/15696097
Date Visited: 20 April 2026
Albert Camus on service of truth and the service of liberty – Nobelprize.org
Excerpt from Albert Camus’ speech at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm, December 10, 1957 | Read the full speech: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1957/camus/speech/ >>
By the same token, the writer’s role is not free from difficult duties. By definition he cannot put himself today in the service of those who make history; he is at the service of those who suffer it. Otherwise, he will be alone and deprived of his art. Not all the armies of tyranny with their millions of men will free him from his isolation, even and particularly if he falls into step with them. But the silence of an unknown prisoner, abandoned to humiliations at the other end of the world, is enough to draw the writer out of his exile, at least whenever, in the midst of the privileges of freedom, he manages not to forget that silence, and to transmit it in order to make it resound by means of his art.
None of us is great enough for such a task. But in all circumstances of life, in obscurity or temporary fame, cast in the irons of tyranny or for a time free to express himself, the writer can win the heart of a living community that will justify him, on the one condition that he will accept to the limit of his abilities the two tasks that constitute the greatness of his craft: the service of truth and the service of liberty. Because his task is to unite the greatest possible number of people, his art must not compromise with lies and servitude which, wherever they rule, breed solitude. Whatever our personal weaknesses may be, the nobility of our craft will always be rooted in two commitments, difficult to maintain: the refusal to lie about what one knows and the resistance to oppression.
Journalists across India are at risk of physical and digital attack in retaliation for their reporting
Journalists across India are at risk of physical and digital attack in retaliation for their reporting. And during election campaigns, these dangers can increase.
Source: “Results of India’s election climate for journalist safety are in” by Kunal Majumder/CPJ India Correspondent, The Committee to Protect Journalists (23 May 2019)
URL: https://cpj.org/2019/05/india-election-journalist-safety-toolkit-harassed-legal-action/
Date visited: 6 November 2020
Learn how to identify unverified content you receive on your cell phone
Learn how to identify unverified content you receive on your cell phone and avoid spreading information on social media that has not been checked by credible sources. Caring for reliable information is everyone’s responsibility, and helps us make better decisions.
The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.
Every year, hundreds of journalists are attacked, imprisoned, or killed. For more than 30 years, CPJ has been there to defend them and fight for press freedom. […]
How We Protect Journalists
CPJ’s work is based on its research, which provides a global snapshot of obstructions to a free press worldwide. CPJ’s research staff documents hundreds of attacks on the press each year. In our quest for a free media, CPJ denounces press freedom violations, meets with heads of state and high-ranking officials, spearheads or advises on diplomatic efforts, and works with other organizations to ensure that justice prevails when journalists are imprisoned or killed. CPJ also provides comprehensive, life-saving support to journalists and media support staff working around the world through up-to-date safety and security information and rapid response assistance.Source: What We Do – The Committee to Protect Journalists
URL: https://cpj.org/about/
Date visited: 6 November 2020
There was a time when, in terms of freedom of press, India was in an enviable position among the developing nations. But that was 40 years ago […].
Today if I were to claim that we are in an enviable position, then I will be accused of spreading fake news.
Source: “Today’s times can’t be exaggerated as Emergency: N. Ram”, report on a webinar organised by Live Law on “Criminalising Journalism and Cinema” (The Hindu, 6 February 2021)
URL: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/todays-times-cant-be-exaggerated-as-emergency-n-ram/article33768798.ece
Date visited: 22 June 2021
“At present, India has 1,350 prisons with a rated full capacity of 4,03,739 prisoners. All jails are bursting with overcrowding and degrading inhuman conditions, so much for standards of human rights of prisoners in terms of the Constitution of India. The Constitution envisioned prisons as centres of reforms, which is not happening.” – Time to tame torturers (tehelka.com) >>
See also: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 70 | Human Rights Commission (posts) | National Human Rights Commission: www.nhrc.nic.in (Government of India) >>
‘The World Press Freedom Index 2020’ said that with no murders of journalists in India in 2019, as against six in 2018, the security situation for the country’s media might seem, on the face of it, to have improved. “However, there have been constant press freedom violations, including police violence against journalists, ambushes by political activists, and reprisals instigated by criminal groups or corrupt local officials,” it said.
Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), or Reporters Without Borders, is a non-profit organisation that works to document and combat attacks on journalists around the world. South Asia in general features poorly on the index | Read the full report here >>
Source: “India ranks 142nd on global press freedom index”, Economic Times (India), 22 April 2020
URL: https://m.economictimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/india-ranks-142nd-on-global-press-freedom-index/articleshow/75279460.cms
Date visited: 3 May 2020
“The Indian authorities’ response to protests has focused on discrediting peaceful protesters, harassing critics of the government, and prosecuting those reporting on the events.” – Meenakshi Ganguly (South Asia director at Human Rights Watch) quoted by Soutik Biswas (BBC News, 4 February 2021)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-55906345
Controlling the media
India’s press freedom rankings have deteriorated consistently in recent years, but one can still wonder – how exactly does the state control media coverage of such a major migrant crisis? The mechanisms of controlling the media are numerous. […]
And in cases where the news coverage is critical of government policies, journalists are prosecuted. Last month, the Editors Guild of India expressed concern over “a growing patter of misuse of criminal laws to intimate journalists” and the International Press Institute released a similar statement. It is not necessary to prosecute each instance of critical reporting – legal harassment and action against a few serves as a deterrent for others. […]
Aman Abhishek is a PhD student in media studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.
Source: “How the Modi Government Manufactured Public Opinion During the Migrant Crisis” by Aman Abhishek, TheWire, 25 June 2020
URL: https://thewire.in/media/covid-19-migrant-crisis-public-opinion-modi
Date visited: 25 June 2020
India Perspectives (24 No. 2/2010) Backup (PDF, 4 MB) >>
Rabindranath Tagore: a universal voice – Unesco >>
The meaning of “freedom” for Indian citizens: Accountability, Childrens right to education, Democracy & Rights of Indigenous Peoples >>
“Every individual in this country is being asked what they have done for the government instead of what the government has done for them”
The Special Lecture by Kannan Gopinathan on “Democracy – Individuals and Institutions” was hosted by the Asian College of Journalism on 2 September 2020
2020, we made our citizens walk thousands of kilometres. Then, they were beaten up at every border.”
“Every individual in this country is being asked what they have done for the government instead of what the government has done for them.”, claims Kannan. He remarks, “Citizens are being made to perennially feel obligated. Citizens feel like they are not doing enough for the government, and as if they aren’t worthy enough to ask questions.”
The question that he posed is on point. He asks, “When you feel something terribly wrong is happening in your own country… if I don’t speak up in my own country, where do I speak up?”
Adding to that, “We were told national integration was happening with the removal of Article 370. We were told Kashmir was being developed.” Optimistically, he quips, “Country is run by the collective intellect… It is the intellectual discourse that guide the country forward.” […]
He gives invaluable advice to budding journalists, “As a journalist, you should always ask questions.” […]
“370 has larger context starting from Independence. He was serving as District Magistrate of Mizoram. How many of us know that IAF has dropped bombs on their own citizens? That also we have a history. Does that justify bombing our people today?” […]
Highlighting the dire need of the current situation, Kannan says, “You can’t keep quiet on everything. At some point, if you disagree- it’s better to say it then rather than piling it up.”
Former IAS Officer Kannan Gopinathan resigned from service in 2019, over ‘lack of freedom of expression’.
India’s democracy is taking a rankings battering these days. For a country which prides itself as the world’s largest democracy, this is troubling news.
So what’s going on?
Earlier this month, in its annual report on global political rights and liberties, US-based non-profit Freedom House downgraded India from a free democracy to a “partially free democracy”.
Last week, Sweden-based V-Dem Institute was harsher in its latest report on democracy. It said India had become an “electoral autocracy”. And last month, India, described as a “flawed democracy”, slipped two places to 53rd position in the latest Democracy Index published by The Economist Intelligence Unit. […]
Populist leaders often polarise society and delegitimise the political opposition, often presenting them as enemies of the state or people. […]
Electoral autocracies, according to V-Dem, are now present in 87 states that are home to 68% of the global population. Liberal democracies, the group says, are diminishing, and are home to only 14% of the people. […]
Source: “Democracy: Institutions and Individuals”: Special lecture for students of journalism by Kannan Gopinathan @ACJIndia #ACJLive
URL: http://acjnewsline.org/special-lecture-by-kannan-gopinathan-ex-ias-officer-and-activist-on-democracy-institutions-and-individuals/
Date visited: 8 November 2020
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