‘India’s press is more craven than Pakistan’s,’ says The Economist

In a piece headlined “All Hail”, The Economist in its latest print edition argues that “India’s press is more craven than Pakistan’s”. It notes that while Pakistani media supported their colleague Cyril Almeida in the face of a government-imposed ban, Indian journalists went on “the offensive against fellow Indians”.

It also draws attention to the fact that journalists in India need only worry about Internet trolls and not “terrorist or shadowy government agencies”. That may be true but India is far from being a safe country for scribes, at least those operating out of mainstream Delhi.

India was the deadliest nation for journalists in Asia in 2015, according to a report published by Reporters Without Borders. From January 2015 to May 2016, eight journalists were murdered and so far not a single conviction has been secured in any of these cases.

The larger problem, though, is not absolute numbers on fatalities but the fact that both countries have journalists and media organisations resorting to self-censorship owing to an atmosphere of threat and fear.

Indeed in recent times, a section of the mainstream media hasn’t exactly been threatened into submission. They have been more than happy to toe the government line.

Predictably, the piece is dividing Indian journalists along obvious lines.