In Modi's India, journalists must fall in line or risk jail time

When we first read Suchitra Vijayan’s reporting on the media in India we were shocked to learn that much of the press in the world’s largest democracy, had fallen in line with Narendra Modi’s authoritarian agenda. Now it feels like a portent of what could happen in the United States. In India today, 75% or more of news organizations are now owned by 4 or 5 large corporations, all led by allies of Modi. In contrast, journalists who have dared criticize the government have been harassed, detained, imprisoned, and even murdered. 

Suchitra Vijayan is a journalist and attorney based in New York City. She is the author of two books: How Long Can the Moon be Caged? Voices of Indian Poltiical Prisoners, co-authored with Francesca Recchia, and Midnight's Borders. Vijayan is also the founder and executive director of the Polis Project, a journalism and research organization focused on authoritarianism and state oppression. She was born and raised in Madras, also known as Chennai, in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and lives in New York City. 

Read Vijayan’s reporting in The Nation about the government’s targeting of Kashmir’s free press.

Follow Suchitra Vijayan on Substack. 

This episode was originally published in November 2023.  Music in this episode by Siddhartha Corsus and Blue Dot Sessions

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