Censorship in India: Muzzled by the government

Work is getting harder for Indian journalist Mandeep Punia: His web magazine’s social media accounts keep getting blocked. Is the government to blame

Transcript

00:00Mandeep Punia is truly passionate about reporting on issues concerning the rural community.

00:07On his website, he focuses on developmental issues faced by farmers and marginalized groups.

00:17Our social media handles were blocked for three to four months.

00:21That's a long break for a digital publication.

00:23It's frustrating as it prevents you from sharing your work.

00:31Mandeep contacted the social media platforms.

00:33He was told that they had received legal removal demands from the Indian government for allegedly

00:38violating India's Information Technology Act.

00:42The journalist feels like he's been targeted for his coverage of the farmers' protests

00:46in India.

00:47When they started in 2021, he recorded videos and reported from the ground every day.

00:57The government doesn't want anyone to show the reality to prevent being shown in a bad

01:02light.

01:03In 2024, a court got his social media handles unblocked, but the damage had been done.

01:11Frequent suspensions had affected both reach and views on his channels.

01:16This also makes it harder for him to get paid for ads and campaigns.

01:23I haven't been able to run the YouTube channel and social media pages as well as before.

01:29The revenue has also gone down.

01:31It's very hard.

01:33We used to be a team of three to four people, but I'm alone now.