The Editors Guild of India on Sunday described as “embarrassing” recent exchanges between Indian officials and journalists in Norway and the Netherlands during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the two countries.
The press body stated that it was concerned by the “stand-offs”, which were “triggered by the prime minister’s refusal to take questions from local journalists after a press briefing”.
The statement came after Norwegian journalist Helle Lyng Svendsen on May 18 questioned Modi’s refusal to answer questions from the media.
Svendsen’s question had refocused attention on the Indian prime minister’s refusal to address press conferences.
Norway and the Netherlands are ranked first and second, respectively, in the World Press Freedom Index, while India is ranked 157 out of 180countries, said the Editors Guild on Sunday.
Although views may differ on the methodology or a possible bias in the international press freedom rankings, India’s “abysmal position” remained “a matter of grave concern” and reflected an increasingly constrained space for the media to discharge its democratic role, it added.
The press body also said that while western journalists might not fully understand India’s history or the role of the Indian press during the freedom movement, they “were right about the need for journalists to ask questions in a democracy”.
“Media restrictions hurt our economy and our society,” read its statement.
It was a “regrettable fact” that Modi has not held any open press conference during his 12-year-long tenure as the prime minister, stated the press body. The same “intolerance” towards questioning is increasingly visible at both the Union and state government levels, it added.
The Editors Guild urged the Union government not to treat the media as an adversary for carrying out its role of holding those in power accountable.
Events in Norway, Netherlands.
As Modi was leaving the podium after he and his Norwegian counterpart had addressed a joint press meet, Svendsen on May 18 asked him: “Prime Minister Modi, why don’t you take some questions from the freest press in the world?”
After Modi departed without acknowledging Svendsen’s query, the journalist had said on social media that she had not actually expected the Indian prime minister to take her question.
Shortly after this, the Indian embassy in Norway told Svendsen that it was organising a press conference later that same night. “You are most welcome to come and ask your questions there,” it had said on X.
During the event, Svendsen had asked why Oslo should trust New Delhi. She also asked if it could be promised that “human rights violations that go on in your country” would be stopped and “will the prime minister start taking critical questions from the Indian press at some point in the future”.
In response, Sibi George, the Ministry of External Affairs’ secretary (west), spoke for 13 minutes, without specifically answering Lyng’s question.
Offering what he claimed was a background for why the world should trust India, he had said that India is a “civilisational country that is 5,000 years old” and has “something unique that it has offered to the world and continues to”.
The numeral zero had originated in India, he had said, as also yoga and chess.
Earlier that week, as Modi arrived in the Netherlands on May 16, his Dutch counterpart, Rob Jetten, had also told reporters that there were concerns within his country and other European Union member states about “developments in India”.
“It is not only about press freedom, but also about the rights of minorities, who are under severe pressure,” Jetten was quoted as saying. “That applies in the first place to the Muslim community, but also to many other smaller communities.”
A journalist with the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, Ashwant Nandram, had later that day asked the Indian delegation for a response to Jetten’s statement.
In response, George had said that New Delhi faces such questions “basically because of the lack of understanding of the person who asked the question”. He claimed that some people abroad formed mistaken impressions about India because they read reports published by “ignorant NGOs”.
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