India’s press freedom has reached a new low as the state increasingly turns to its 'legal arsenal' to muzzle dissent.
According to the 2026 Reporters Without Borders (BSF) report, this year’s decline—now placing India at 157th place globally behind neighbours like Pakistan (153)—is driven by a surge in legal cases against journalists and the strategic use of defamation and anti-terror laws to target investigative newsrooms.
In the report, the country’s score dipped from 32.96 to 31.96 over the past year, reflecting a "very serious" environment for journalists. Notably, India now ranks below its nuclear neighbour Pakistan, which climbed to 153rd from 158 last year.
What's shocking is that India is just one spot above a conflict zone like Palestine as well, which is ranked at 156th. Last year, India was nominally ahead of Palestine which was ranked 163 and India was at 151.
While the RSF report highlights an "unofficial state of emergency" under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, citing rising violence against media professionals, concentrated media ownership, it also flags a sharp decline in legal protections for the press.
Use of restrictive laws
The report stated that the use of restrictive laws and legal pressures has contributed to the challenging environment for journalists in the country.
An accusation that most senior Indian journalists and activists echoed when talking to The Federal.
Commenting on the RSF ranking, senior journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, who runs his own YouTube channel, said the ranking is "disgraceful, shameful but not surprising".
“Several laws like the Information Technology Act and the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, have been systematically weaponised to stifle dissenting voices. The voices of a section of the media particularly on social media like YouTube and Facebook, are systemically being stifled. Therefore, I am not surprised, I have been in journalism for half a century but I have never seen the space for free expression curtailed to this extent in our country,” said Guha Thakurta.
In his view, there has been a reported "overuse" of agencies like the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and stringent anti-terror laws to target and silence local journalists.
Terror cases, internet shutdowns
Laxmi Murthy, cofounder and editor of Free Speech Collective highlighted what the RSF report noted as the rampant use of "legal arsenal" or warfare against journalists. “It’s no longer about direct killings or attacks on journalists, which had reduced overall but the media now is being flooded with anti-terror cases, slapped with UAPA and NIA cases. In Kashmir, journalists are routinely summoned to the police station, all of which creates a high degree of censorship,” said Murthy.
She cites the example of Kashmir. "The worse treatment of the Indian media unfolded in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370. The region faced an unprecedented internet shutdown lasting over a year—one of the longest in a democratic country. This clampdown included rounding up several journalists with many continuing to face judicial harassment. Kashmiri media has yet to recover even today, with independent reporting essentially crippled under prolonged Central rule," said Murthy.
Moreover, the amendments to the IT rules and DPDP have become very stringent, and though the changes have been circulated for suggestions, the entire process is unclear, she pointed out. Further, she added, all of these laws broadly crack down on the media, and even putting out a tweet can get you into trouble.
The intimidation and censorship in India today are probably why our rankings are dropping, she reasoned.
Frequent internet shutdowns, especially in Assam, Manipur and Kashmir, have also contributed to this drop in press freedom, asserted Murthy. These shutdowns leaves the journalist with no scope of getting verified quotes and no access to officials making it difficult for them to report.
The RSF report, meanwhile, too stated that the legal environment for journalists has worsened the most in the past year, with over 60 per cent of countries seeing a decline. Increasing misuse of national security laws and anti-terror legislation is being seen as key tools used to restrict reporting, it observed.
Disdain for media
The RSP report remarked, “With a rise in violence against journalists, highly concentrated media ownership, and outlets with increasingly overt political alignment, press freedom is in crisis in "the world’s largest democracy," ruled since 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and embodiment of the Hindu nationalist right."
According to Guha Thakurta, in the last 12 years, PM of India has refused to speak to the media. "He picks and choses who he would like to speak to and he’s the first and only PM to show such disdain for the media. Moreover, this particular regime has not just been intolerant but vengeful, using law enforcing agencies against the media to throttle dissent, calling them anti-national and urban Naxalities," lashed out Guha Thakurta, who has seven legal cases against him filed by a major corporate group.
Why below Pakistan?
On why we figure lower than Pakistan in the press freedom index, Murthy has an answer. She said that though India may not experience the same kind of violations seen in Pakistan or Afghanistan, the legal warfare unleashed on the media has tilted the balance against India.
According to Murthy, the Pakistan press does not keep kowtowing to the government. "The military may be a touch-me-not but the government, public figures, corporates are open to criticism. Public discourse happens. Look at the way Operation Sindoor was reported in the Pakistan press vis-a-vis India. Their reporting was more sober than ours, Indian press just dished out what the government put out.
This latest drop in the RSF rankings places India in an increasingly precarious position globally. The country now trails not only Palestine but also a string of nations including Tajikistan (155), Laos (154), Pakistan (153), Bangladesh (152), and Cambodia (151).
With this ranking, India is now situated in the bottom 15 per cent of the index, performing better than only 23 other nations—a list that ends with Eritrea at the very bottom.
Press freedom hits lowest point
However, India can take heart since the global press freedom has reached its weakest point in 25 years, according to the RSF report.
The World Press Freedom Index 2026 highlighted a sustained decline in media and journalism independence, with more than half of the 180 countries assessed now classified under "difficult" or "very serious" conditions. According to RSF, the global average score has dropped to 54.3 points, its lowest level since the Index began in 2002.
The organisation noted that 52.2 per cent of countries now fall into the most challenging categories, a sharp rise from just 13.7 per cent in 2002. This deterioration is due to a combination of hostile political rhetoric, economic fragility in the media sector, and the growing use of laws to curb journalistic work, the RSF report said.
Meanwhile, the United States too dropped seven positions to 64th place. RSF attributed this decline to increased political hostility towards the media and institutional decisions impacting global news organisations. "US President Donald Trump’s frequent attacks on the press and journalists are now systematic, relegating the country to 64th place," the RSF noted.
