<
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/apr/23/abc-south-asia-correspondent-avani-dias-narendra-modi-government>
"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.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
