On 3rd October, 2023, Prabir Purkayastha, editor of NewsClick, as well as its journalists, were arrested by the Delhi Police. Laptops and phones were seized under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (1967), the statute built for terrorism.
This is not unusual in India. According to RSF, sedition and threats to national security, particularly the UAPA, are the most commonly cited causes for arrests of journalists in India. Its 2026 Index revealed that India had dropped seven places to 157th out of 180 countries in press freedom. It also identified that the most prominent mechanism was the weaponising of criminal statutes against the press.
The Constitution of India has no provision on the press. Its freedom has been upheld by the same provision which guarantees and safeguards the “freedom of speech and expression” to every Indian citizen: Article 19)(a). Every time the court has protected the freedom of the press, it has been inferred from Article 19(1)(a); from Romesh Thappar’s case in 1950 to the NewsClick’s reporting on Pegasus decades later. The profession has no right or provision accorded to it in the Constitution.
This was a deliberate decision during the drafting of the Constitution. In the Constituent Assembly Debates, Dr B. R. Ambedkar, Chairman of the Drafting Committee, noted that a journalist exercising the right to expression was, in the eyes of the law, indistinguishable from a citizen doing the same. Therefore, press freedom did not require a separate provision. It was not the value of the press that was in question. It was the requirement of a distinct constitutional provision that was in question, and the answer to this question was covered under Article 19(1)(a).
This marks a stark difference between how the Constitution treats the three pillars of a democracy (the judiciary, the executive and the legislature) and the fourth pillar (the press). The executive answers to the legislature. The legislature answers to the judiciary. The judiciary answers to the Constitution’s own appellate architecture and the Parliament’s power to legislate within constitutional limits. The Constitution defines the mechanism restraining each of the official three pillars of democracy. However, the press maintains a check on the three pillars from being captured by the others, which leads to democratic backsliding. Nevertheless, the fourth pillar has no equivalent provision of its own in the Constitution. It rests solely on Article 19(1)(a), meaning that the press is only as strong as the freedom of every other citizen to speak and express. Recent history, not only in India but across the world, reveals that this has left the press vulnerable to capture by political powers and corporates. RSF has traced a global decline in press freedom. It has identified authoritarian states, complicit or incompetent political powers, predatory economic actors and under-regulated online platforms as directly and overwhelmingly responsible for this decline.
While this legal vulnerability makes the press fragile, it is not the sole cause. The press relies heavily on public trust, and this trust is earned through integrity in reporting. This integrity, however, depends on ownership. Corporate ownership of the press gives control of its reporting to the parent companies, calling into question the integrity of the media outlets.
On 3rd October, 2024, News18, CNN-News18, CNBC Awaaz, CNBC-TV18, Firstpost, and Moneycontrol were merged into a single listed entity, Network18 Media and Investments Limited, of which Reliance Industries holds 56.98%. The AMG Media Networks, owned by the Adani Group, holds 64.71% of NDTV (since 2022), 100% of BQ Prime, formerly Bloomberg Quint (since November 2023) and 100% of I News Service (since 2026). Industrial conglomerates rely on regulations and policies executed by governments. Therefore, their ownership of the mechanism that holds the government accountable opens the room for editorial control of news shared with or not shared with the public.
Platforms like X and YouTube have emerged as alternatives and more authentic sources of information, performing the function traditionally relegated to the press. Journalists themselves make use of these platforms to disseminate news (such as Faye D’Souza) while simultaneously turning ordinary citizens into reporters, sharing footage from within events. However, these platforms are also structures, open to the same vulnerabilities as the traditional press. X is owned by Meta, and YouTube is led by an algorithm. Additionally, the structure of these platforms is designed to keep users on the platforms, which requires the elimination of friction. Each user’s experience of each of these platforms therefore becomes an echo chamber, limiting the user’s exposure to a truth or reality that would make them uncomfortable. Thus, while these platforms carry the potential to function as alternatives to traditional press, this potential is limited by their structural design of monopolising a user’s attention.
The press’s entire value lies in its capacity to redirect public attention and,d through that attention, political power. It is precisely this capacity which threatens political power. When this political power is deployed against the press, the judiciary steps in, as it did in the NewsClick case. However, it also evidences the limits of the judiciary. On 15th May, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled Purkayastha’s arrest and remand as unlawful due to a technicality (neither Purkayastha nor his counsel received his remand application before a judge signed it). On 29th May 2026, the Delhi H Court quashed both the police FIR and the Enforcement Directorate’s money laundering proceedings. Justice Neena Bansal Krishna stated that their continuation was “gross abuse of the process of law”. The judiciary maintained its check, but Purkayastha did spend seven months in custody. The fourth pillar was, in the end, protected. But nothing is preventing it from being attacked in the first place by the “gross abuse of the process of law”.
References
- The Wire – India is 157th out of 180 Countries on RSF’s 2026 World Press Freedom Index
- India is 157th Out of 180 Countries on RSF's 2026 World Press Freedom Index.
- Reporters without Borders – 2026 RSF Index: Press Freedom at a 25-year low 2026 RSF Index: press freedom at a 25-year low | RSF
- Supreme Court Observer – Article 19: Prescription, procedure and the press
- Article 19: Prescription, procedure and the press - Supreme Court Observer
- The Wire – ‘People May Find Greater Courage to Stand Up to the Government’: NewsClick Prabir Purkayastha
- ‘People May Find Greater Courage to Stand Up to the Government’: NewsClick Editor Prabir Purkayastha
- ALT News – ‘Gross Abuse of Law’ Delhi HC quashed NewsClick FIR, ED case against Prabir Purkayastha https://www.altnews.in
- Live Law – Prabir Purkayastha’s Arrest By Delhi Police & Remand Illegal
- Prabir Purkayastha's Arrest By Delhi Police & Remand Illegal: Supreme Court Orders NewsClick Editor's Release In UAPA Case
- CBI Insights Indo-Asian News Service - Products, Competitors, Financials, Employees, Headquarters Locations
- Business Standard – Adani Group Buys NDTV promoters’ stake at 17% premium, takes control https://www.business-standard.com
- Exchange for Media – Adani’s AMG Media Network gets 49% stake in Quintillion Business Media for Rs 48
- Adani’s AMG Media Network gets 49% stake in Quintillion Business Media for Rs 48 crore
- Wikipedia – Network18 Group https://en.wikipedia.org