Reporting in India ‘too difficult’ under Modi, says departing Australian journalist
Publishing date: 23 April 2024
The south-Asia correspondent for Australia’s national broadcaster, Avani Dias, has been forced out of India after her reporting fell foul of the Indian government, in a sign of the increasing pressure on journalists in the country under Narendra Modi.
Dias, who has been based in Delhi for the ABC since January 2022, said she felt the government had made it “too difficult” for her to continue to do her job, claiming it blocked her from accessing events, issued takedown notices to YouTube for her news stories, and then refused her a standard visa renewal.
Dias was told by the Indian government that her visa, which was due for renewal, would be blocked, she says in the final episode of her podcast, Looking for Modi.
The decision came after the Indian government issued a takedown notice to YouTube for an episode of Foreign Correspondent, the ABC’s flagship international news program, that she reported.
The episode covered the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist, in Canada last year. Canada accused the Indian government of being involved in his murder, straining relations between the two nations.
Dias says a ministry official called to inform her of the decision regarding her visa.
“He specifically said it was because of my Sikh separatist story, saying it had gone too far,” she said.
Australia lobbied India on Dias’ behalf, and less than 24 hours before Dias and her partner were due to leave the country, the Indian government overturned its decision and renewed her visa for two months.
However, Dias said that by this point it was clear that it would be too difficult for her to stay and continue her work as an independent journalist. She returned to Australia on the weekend.
“It felt too difficult to do my job in India. I was struggling to get into public events run by Modi’s party, the government wouldn’t even give me the passes I need to cover the election and the ministry left it all so late, that we were already packed up and ready to go,” she said in her podcast.
“It’s all by design. The Narendra Modi government has made me feel so uncomfortable that we decided to leave. There’s always a feeling of unease that this sort of backlash could come your way as a journalist in India, I’ve felt it the whole time I’ve been here, so have my colleagues from other publications.”