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.
"Carrie Lam has proved to be the puppet of Chinese President Xi Jinping, and now openly supports his predatory policies towards the media," the report says, adding she was behind the closure of Hong Kong’s leading independent newspaper, Apple Daily, and the jailing of its founder, Jimmy Lai. Regarding Sheikh Hasina, the RSF said, "Her predatory exploits include the adoption of a digital security law in 2018 that has led to more than 70 journalists and bloggers being prosecuted."
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Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has also been mentioned in the RSF report saying, “His repressive methods include spying and threats that have sometimes led to abduction, torture and other unthinkable acts. Jamal Khashoggi’s horrific murder exposed a predatory method that is simply barbaric." Khashoggi was Saudi journo who was brutally murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
The watchdog's chief finally urged world governments to give up the practices used by the leaders it has mentioned and to consider the positive contributions made by an independent press.
