Improving ranking in the World Press Freedom Index

A committee set up by the Narendra Modi government last year to suggest ways of India improving its ranking in the World Press Freedom Index has concluded that the media is doing well and that India’s poor score – which it says is “not in line with the ground situation” – is the product of “western bias”.

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The Index Monitoring Cell (IMC) was set up by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry with stakeholders to improve India’s ranking in the World Press Freedom Index and to evolve an objective yardstick to gauge media freedom.

The 15-member committee, which had four meetings between May and December last year, has four journalists and government functionaries.

Chaired by Kuldeep Singh Dhatwalia, Principal Director General of the Press Information Bureau, the committee has 10 government employees.

Among the key recommendations is the decriminalising of defamation. India is one of the few countries in the world to criminalise defamation.

The panel has also recommended that consent of the Press Council of India is a prerequisite before filing an FIR against the media or a publication.