By Mark Zoarab | Staff Writer
The ability of many journalists to report freely is deteriorating, but this does not only occur in
authoritarian nations. Even in democracies, press freedom is declining. Governments
everywhere are using more subtle tactics to jeopardize independent media. Yet it is the overt
method of censorship of the BBC documentary by the Indian government that caused this
news to attract global attention.
The Indian government condemned the BBC for airing a documentary critical of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership during the Gujarat riots in 2002. The documentary,
India: The Modi Question, has not been broadcasted in India. The government has
prohibited the distribution of documentary snippets, requesting that links and recordings be
removed from Twitter and YouTube.
Kanchan Gupta, a government adviser, said that orders were provided under emergency
powers afforded to the government under the country’s information technology legislation.
He called the documentary “hateful propaganda” and claimed that YouTube and Twitter
“followed the directives.” In response to the documentary, an official from India’s Foreign
Ministry stated, “We think this is a propaganda piece designed to push a particular
discredited narrative.” He condemned the “lack of objectivity” and “continuing colonial
attitude” in the documentary.
The BBC defended its work, claiming that the program was “rigorously researched according
to the highest editorial standards.” They also added that “a wide range of voices, witnesses,
and experts were approached, and we have featured a range of opinions – this includes
responses from people in the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). We offered the Indian
Government a right to reply to the matters raised in the series – it declined to respond.”
In a manner that Indian journalists cannot, the BBC documentary explores Narendra Modi’s
history. The BBC takes viewers back to 2002 as it discusses the riots in Gujarat that resulted
in more than a thousand deaths, the majority of them Muslims. 59 persons died when a train
carrying Hindu pilgrims caught fire in February 2002. Three days of violent communal rioting
broke out throughout the state when local Muslims were blamed. Despite claims that Muslim
merchants at Godhra station burnt the train by the state administration led by Modi, a
federally mandated committee’s 2006 investigation found the fire was unintentional.
The documentary depicts a British government inquiry that concluded that Modi, who at the
time served as Gujarat’s chief minister, was directly to blame for those killings. The police’s
inactivity was seen in the documentary as having the characteristics of ethnic cleansing.
Modi was eventually absolved of all charges by the Indian Supreme Court, and ever since
his election as prime minister in 2014, journalists have avoided discussing this event.
The government’s choice to censor the BBC documentary which includes social media has
caused a stir on social media. Furthermore, it has raised awareness of Modi’s performance
in government and the ensuing decline in media freedom in the biggest democracy in the
world. In fact, according to Reporters Without Borders’ 2022 World Press Freedom Index,
India is placed 150th out of 180 nations in terms of press freedom.
The Indian government’s drastic tactics to restrict access to the documentary have only
helped to raise public interest in it. One of India’s top liberal universities, Jawaharlal Nehru
University, hosted a screening of the BBC documentary. However, students were left to wait
and watch the event on laptops and mobiles after university officials quickly shut the gates at
the New Delhi campus and turned off the electricity. A smaller group of masked individuals
throwing stones then attacked the students mere minutes into the screening, which had
been held in defiance of a university’s orders. Similar events were reported in other regions
of the nation. Opposition leaders, journalists, and activists continue to post links to the BBC
program on social media in defiance of official orders.