Opinion | Oslo’s Press Freedom Lecture: Why Does India Still Seek Western Validation? |
Opinion | Oslo’s Press Freedom Lecture: Why Does India Still Seek Western Validation?
Democracy rating indices published by V-Dem and Freedom House often sit uneasily with observable political realities on the ground
A Norwegian journalist decided to go on her soapbox and hold forth on the lack of press freedoms in India. Her rant, directed at Prime Minister Modi, was triggered by his decision to walk away from the post-bilateral talks joint press statement venue without taking questions from journalists.
Helle Lyng, a journalist who writes for the Norwegian newspaper Dagsavisen, shared a video on her X handle on Monday of PM Modi exiting the joint press statement venue with his Norway counterpart. In the video, Lyng is heard saying, “Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, would not take my question, I was not expecting him to…" In the same post, Lyng also implied that the reason the PM didn’t take questions was because on the World Press Freedom Index, India stands at 157th, alongside countries like Palestine, the UAE, and Cuba. She rounded off her post by........