Imkong Walling
Imagine a plot of land. It has a definite area with a definite set of people; the larger the living area, the greater the wriggle room for the inhabitants.
Now, imagine the area of space within the plot as democracy. The plot’s borderlines are the limits imposed by law and convention. The space within its confines is the sphere of rights and freedoms. It is the limits within which citizens can say and demand without fear.
Again, imagine the plot as India. With all its professed democracy, the space called democracy seems to be increasingly narrowing in the Indian state.
For five consecutive times, 2022 to 2026, India has ranked 150th or lower out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index. During the same period, Pakistan — a country known more for military dictatorships — outranked India thrice in the press freedom stepladder published annually by the international non-profit, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
In 2023, 2024 and 2026, India ranked 161, 159 and 157 to Pakistan’s 150, 152 and 153, respectively. India’s other close neighbour Bangladesh ranked 149 in 2025 and 152 in 2026.
In the index, India has consistently scored in the low 30s out of 100. As per the RSF, the ranking is relative to the total score with 0 being the lowest and 100 being the best possible score— The lesser the score, the lower the ranking.
The RSF defines press freedom “as the ability of journalists as individuals and collectives to select, produce, and disseminate news in the public interest independent of political, economic, legal, and social interference and in the absence of threats to their physical and mental safety.” The non-profit’s panel of experts makes their assessment based on five contextual indicators— political, legal, economic, socio-cultural and safety.
It claims the index “is a snapshot of the situation during the calendar year… It is meant to be seen as an accurate reflection of the situation at the time of publication.”
Published from a country that sits on a so called occidental end of the East-West ideological divide, the ranking has not been without criticism. Governments, including but not limited to India, Pakistan, China and Russia have disputed the metrics applied, accusing it of bias.
But how has India fared, as per the RSF? In the 2026 assessment, the RSF described press freedom in the world’s largest democracy as marked by “rise in violence against journalists, highly concentrated media ownership, and outlets with increasingly overt political alignment.”
It cites business tycoons close to the ruling regime acquiring media outlets, enactment of laws expanding government overreach, and class/caste, religious and gender bias dominating the media landscape.
For a country that prides itself on its founding democratic ideals — as opposed to undemocratic neighbouring adversaries — the appraisal is counterintuitive given how it appears on the surface.
When a majority regime disputes such assessments, when a democratically elected ruling government takes offence to democratic expression, when critics of a democratically elected government cannot safely criticise from within the country’s borders, when critics are compelled to critique from the safety of foreign soil, it does not bode well for the people, who have been taught to trust democracy.
The writer is a Principal Correspondent at The Morung Express. Comments can be sent to imkongwalls@gmail.com
