Reporting in India 'too difficult' under Modi, says departing Australian journalist

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/apr/23/abc-south-asia-correspondent-avani-dias-narendra-modi-government

Reporting in India ‘too difficult’ under Modi, says departing Australian journalist

Kate Lyons
Tue 23 Apr 2024 02.33 EDT

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.

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