According to a study by the US State Department, India has “serious human rights challenges” such as “restrictions on free expression and media, including violence” and “threats of violence, or unlawful arrests or prosecutions against journalists.”
The India segment of the study, titled ‘2021 Country Report on Human Rights Practices,’ was released late Tuesday and cited “terrorists and extremists perpetrating murders, violence, and intimidation” against journalists critical of the government.
Government of India attacking media outlets
According to the report, “government officials at both the local and national levels were involved in intimidating critical media outlets through physical harassment and attacks, pressuring owners, targeting sponsors, encouraging frivolous lawsuits, and in some areas blocking communication services, such as mobile telephones and the internet, and restricting freedom of movement.”
The government had restricted the Twitter accounts of several journalists who covered the farmers’ protest last year, according to the report, which demoted India from free to partly free in the Freedom in the World 2021 report. Journalists in J&K “continued to encounter hurdles to free reporting including communications and movement limitations,” according to the study.
At least six journalists from the region have been “assaulted, detained, or questioned by police,” according to the report. Terrorists targeting forces and the status of Kashmiri Pandits are discussed in the study. It was about the excesses of militants.