Hyderabad:Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) or Reporters Without Borders, a global non-governmental organization that aims to safeguard the right to freedom of information for the first time in five years has listed 37 world leaders including Indian PM Narendra Modi in its list of 'Press Freedom Predators'. In the report, RSF states that following the overwhelming victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2019 general elections, there has been immense pressure on the media to accept the government's line, adding that those criticising the Modi-led government risked losing their jobs.
"After becoming Gujarat’s chief minister in 2001, he used this western state as a laboratory for the news and information control methods he deployed after being elected as India’s prime minister in 2014. His leading weapon is to flood the mainstream media with speeches and information tending to legitimise his national-populist ideology. To this end, he has developed close ties with billionaire businessmen who own vast media empires. With four journalists killed in connection with their work in 2020, India is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists trying to do their job properly. They are exposed to every kind of attack, including police violence against reporters, ambushes by political activists, and reprisals instigated by criminal groups or corrupt local officials," the report by RSF states, citing that Indian ranks 142 as per 2021 World Press Freedom Index.
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The press watchdog has also added Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on its list of 'predators', in a first for a Western European leader to be placed in the lineup of heads of state or government who 'crackdown massively' on the freedom of the press. Among women, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina and Hong Kong’s administrative chief Carrie Lam were also added.