The Press Trust of India, @PTI_News, roughly India’s AP, may not be a bastion of accountability journalism, but it is a crucial institution providing news from across the country. Now it faces a campaign of intimidation from the Modi government. (Short thread)
On June 25, with tensions running high over clashes at the Sino-Indian border, PTI published this typically anodyne interview with the Chinese ambassador: ptinews.com/news/11592287_…
The first response came from one of the wire service’s most important subscribers, the state broadcaster, which described the coverage as “anti-national” - a catchall slur for government critics: thewire.in/media/governme…
Prasar Bharti is nominally Independent, but that is principle vastly more honored in the breach than in the execution. Even for them, this threat is astonishing.
Next into the action was the government itself. The ministry responsible for PTI’s Delhi head office building demanded a penalty of around $11 million for breaches of lease conditions, and threatened to claim more: scroll.in/latest/967344/…
The story of media real estate in central Delhi is complicated, but the import of this demand, at this moment, will be clear to all concerned
In 2016 there was a brief tussle over the appointment of a new editor in chief, which wasn’t much noticed outside Delhi journalism circles outlookindia.com/magazine/story…
Other levers are now in play, and the PTI finds itself facing the same pressures as broadcasters, independent news outlets and individual journalists who have upset the government.
The bar for doing that, clearly is getting lower all the time.
Newswires are gravely under-appreciated elements of information infrastructure, and Modi knows they are important bridgeheads to capture. /ends
