World Press Freedom Day| A Retrospective

May 3 marks World Press Freedom Day, a moment to reflect on the health of the Fourth Estate and renew our commitment to holding power to account. But in India, there is increasingly little to celebrate. The world바카라�s largest democracy now ranks 151 out of 180 on the World Press Freedom Index. A decade ago, it was 140. The slide is not incidental, it is structural, deliberate, and increasingly profitable.

Journalists aren바카라�t just on the margins; they바카라�re being forced out. From police raids and anti-terror laws to algorithmic censorship and digital surveillance, India바카라�s media landscape is being reshaped to discourage dissent and amplify propaganda. The space for independent reporting is shrinking바카라�on air, online, and in the eyes of the law.

Outlook has chronicled this erosion in real time. In our October 21, 2023, issue, 'All is Well', we satirised the rise of the 바카라�happy news industry바카라�바카라�an increasingly dominant media culture where celebration is state-sanctioned and critique is criminalised. As Anisha Reddy and Sharmita Kar reported, 46 journalists linked to NewsClick were raided under the anti-terror UAPA law, in what senior journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta described as a chilling 바카라�message to all journalists바카라�look what we can do to you.바카라� No concrete evidence of wrongdoing was presented, but that was never the point. The raids were the punishment. The process was the deterrent.

In the same issue, Outlook editor Chinki Sinha reminded us through allegorical fiction that dystopia often begins not with the overt banning of books, but with the subtle mandate for only good news. What Ray Bradbury imagined in Fahrenheit 451, she wrote, is no longer 바카라�not-yet.바카라� It바카라�s here. In the language of development, in the celebration of silence, in the insistence that journalists be cheerleaders or risk being labelled traitors.

Yet, even in this fractured landscape, stories survive. In our March 21, 2022, issue, 'Notes from the Underground', Outlook turned the spotlight on India바카라�s invisible newsmakers바카라� local reporters, stringers, and YouTubers who continue to tell the truth from the margins, without institutional protection or mainstream recognition. As Parth MN wrote in his dispatch for the People바카라�s Archive of Rural India, covering elections is not about predicting outcomes, but about understanding the conditions of the people. And yet, despite telling stories of maternal deaths, caste discrimination, and crumbling healthcare, he observed how these real issues rarely reach voters, drowned out by louder, emptier broadcasts.

Today, on Press Freedom Day, Outlook extends that line of reporting. We examine the mechanisms바카라�legal, technological, and editorial바카라�that have made disinformation not an aberration, but standard practice. From raids to algorithms, from state messaging to newsroom silence, we trace how journalism in India is being systematically weakened.