NEW DELHI: India has constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and bysome measures the biggest and most diverse media industry in the world. Butjournalists here say they are increasingly facing intimidation aimed atstopping them from running stories critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modiand his administration.

At least three senior editors have left their jobs at various influentialmedia outlets in the past six months after publishing reports that angeredthe government or supporters of Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP), according to colleagues.

Some reporters, as well as television anchors, have told Reuters they havebeen threatened with physical harm, abused on social media and ostracisedby Modi’s administration.

In its annual World Press Freedom Index released on Wednesday, theParis-based Reporters Without Borders said that India was now 138th-rankedin the world out of 180 countries measured, down two positions since 2017and lower than countries like Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Myanmar. When theindex was started in 2002, India was ranked 80th out of 139 countriessurveyed.

Reporters Without Borders said that “with Hindu nationalists trying topurge all manifestations of ‘anti-national’ thought from the nationaldebate, self-censorship is growing in the mainstream media and journalistsare increasingly the targets of online smear campaigns by the most radicalnationalists, who vilify them and even threaten physical reprisals.”link>link>

The group said that “hate speech targeting journalists is shared andamplified on social networks, often by troll armies.”

Spokesmen for the government declined comment on the accusations byjournalists. They did not immediately respond to the Reporters WithoutBorders report. – Agencies