India Ranks 151 Out Of 180 Countries In World Press Freedom Index 2025; RSF Calls It 'One Of World’s Most Dangerous Countries'

Media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontières announced the 2025 World Press Freedom Index and India has ranked 151 out of 180 countries counted in the list.

India's rank improved over the last two years but it still remains under 'very serious' category in the index. RSF called the current state of Indian media as "unofficial state of emergency" and stated that it has been so since "Narendra Modi came to power in 2014 and engineered a spectacular rapprochement between his party, the BJP, and the big families dominating the media."

Also known as Reporters Without Borders, the non-government organisation has been publishing the World Press Freedom Index since 2002.

India's Rank On World Press Freedom Index

India ranked 151st out of 180 countries in the given list as published by Reporters Without Borders.

India had ranked 159th in 2024 and 161st in 2023.

The neighbouring country Bangladesh ranked two points ahead of India this year.

RSF on their website wrote, "With violence against journalists, highly concentrated media ownership, and political alignment, press freedom is in crisis in “the world’s largest democracy”, ruled since 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and embodiment of the Hindu nationalist right."

Speaking of safety of journalists in the country, RSF stated, "With an average of two to three journalists killed due to their work every year, India is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for the media."

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They further wrote, "Journalists who are critical of the government are routinely subjected to online harassment, intimidation, threats and physical attacks, as well as criminal prosecutions and arbitrary arrests. "

Further they wrote about the risk that journalists, especially from Jammu and Kashmir face, it said, "The situation is also very worrisome for journalists covering environmental topics or news in Kashmir, where reporters are often harassed by police and paramilitaries, with some being subjected to so-called “provisional” detention for several years."

India's Media Landscape

Among the 1.4 billion Indian population, 210 million homes have TV sets and there are 900 privately owned TV channels, half of which are dedicated to news. 

According to RSF, around 140,000 publications are published in more than 20 languages, including some 20,000 daily newspapers. Their combined circulation totals more than 390 million copies.

The new generation prefers online news via social media and it has overtaken the print media as main source of news.