Youth Congress trolls Modi for figuring in 'predators of press freedom' list

French media watchdog Reporters Without Borders has published its annual list of heads of government who are 'predators of press freedom'. This year's list has 37 heads of state Reporters Without Borders alleges crack down massively on press freedom.

In addition to strongmen like China's Xi Jinping, Russia's Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un, the list is conspicuous for the large number of leaders from the subcontinent. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pakistan's Imran Khan, Bangladesh's Sheikh Hasina and Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa figure on the list.

In it's 'portrait' describing Modi, Reporters Without Borders says Modi uses the 'predatory method' of "national populism and disinformation". Reporters without Borders claims, "After becoming Gujarat’s chief minister in 2001, he used this western state as a laboratory for the news and information control methods he deployed after being elected as India’s prime minister in 2014. His leading weapon is to flood the mainstream media with speeches and information tending to legitimise his national-populist ideology. To this end, he has developed close ties with billionaire businessmen who own vast media empires."

Kanchan Gupta, a senior adviser in the ministry of information and broadcasting, slammed the report as being "fact free and baseless", The Print reported.

“A report is framed on the basis of facts and figures. A fact-free, broad-brush labelling of the elected prime minister of the world’s largest democracy as a ‘tyrant’ and baselessly accusing him of ‘divisive disinformation’, is at best an ill-informed opinion beneath contempt… at worst, it’s a malicious and malevolent targeted attack not only on the prime minister of India but also on the country’s established political process as well as its sovereign laws. Media freedom is hale and hearty in India and does not require any intervention by an agenda-driven foreign NGO,” Gupta told The Print.

The Youth Congress on Tuesday used the report to troll Modi. It tweeted, "... Modi government ruins our country image on global stage. India joins 37 others with leaders like North Korea, Pakistan who 'trample on press freedom by creating a censorship apparatus'."

Pakistan's Information Ministry has objected to Imran Khan being named in the report. "It appears that the report that (Reporters Without Borders) has issued is an attempt to malign the elected representative of the people of Pakistan, without any corroborative evidence," the ministry was quoted as saying on Tuesday by Associated Press.