India - Paramilitary force tells media what they can publish

Reporters Without Borders condemns the directive that the Assam Rifles, a paramilitary group attached to the interior ministry, sent to local media in the northeastern state of Nagaland ordering them not to quote the statements of an outlawed separatist group.

Sent on 24 October to the Eastern Mirror, Nagaland Page, Morung Express, Nagalang Post and Capi Daily, the notice accused them of providing “support to an unlawful association” and said they would be sanctioned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 if they continued to publish the statements of the outlawed National Socialist Council of Nagaland - Khaplang (NSCN-K).

“This directive with the aim of telling the news media what they can put in their reports is outrageous,” said Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Asia-Pacific desk.

“Quoting or reporting the statements of militant groups, like the statements of any source, is part of the work of the journalists. We remind the Assam Rifles that reporting statements is not the same as endorsing them or promoting them. It is part of the job of providing the public with information.”

Five local newspapers – the English-language Morung Express, Eastern Mirror and Nagaland Page, the Angami-language Capi Daily and the Ao-language Tir Yimyim – published blank editorials in protest on 16 November, National Press Day.

India is ranked 136th out of 180 countries in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.