India

Journalist violence in India remains a severe crisis, with the country ranked 151st out of 180 in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, labeled in the “very serious” category. India is consistently one of the world’s most dangerous places for media workers, averaging 2-4 killings annually due to work-related motives, often linked to corruption exposés, local politics, or crime.

In 2025, at least 6-9 journalists were killed, according to sources like the Free Speech Collective (FSC), Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), and others—rural and local reporters bore the brunt. Notable cases include Mukesh Chandrakar (beaten and dumped in a septic tank in Chhattisgarh for corruption reporting), Raghvendra Vajpayee (shot in Uttar Pradesh), Rajeev Pratap (found dead in Uttarakhand river after hospital exposé), and others in Haryana, Odisha, and Andaman. FSC documented 33 attacks on journalists amid 40 total incidents, plus threats, harassment, and online smears (e.g., via OpIndia targeting over 90 articles).

Impunity persists: few convictions occur, with perpetrators from political affiliates, criminals, or officials rarely punished. Journalists also face arrests under draconian laws like UAPA, sedition charges, and censorship. Amid polarized politics and economic pressures on media, these attacks threaten independent journalism in the world’s largest democracy