In India, media outlets critical of govt pressured or harassed: claims US report

The Trump administration today claimed that in India, media outlets critical of the government were allegedly pressured or harassed in 2017.

"The Constitution (of India) provides for freedom of speech and expression, but it does not explicitly mention freedom of the press. The government (of India) generally respected these rights, although there were instances in which the government allegedly pressured or harassed media outlets critical of the government," US State Department said in its annual Human Rights Report for the year 2017.

The Congress mandated annual report of the Department of State chronicles situation of human rights in almost all countries of the world.

While the situation of human rights in India, as compared to other countries, is much better, the State Department report chronicles major instances of incidents perceived as an attack on the press freedom in India.

This comes at a time when the Trump administration itself is being accused of launching an assault on the freedom of the press.

President Donald Trump himself has coined the word "fake media" for those news reports and media outlets that are critical of him.

In its report, the State Department said individuals routinely criticised the government publicly and privately. According to Human Rights Watch, however, sedition and criminal defamation laws were sometimes used to prosecute citizens who criticised government officials or opposed state policies, it said.

According to media watchdog The Hoot's India Freedom Report detailing cases between January 2016 and April 2017, "there was an overall sense of shrinking liberty not experienced in recent years."