A survey by the Pew Research Center found that India has one of the highest share of people who believe its country’s media is free from state intervention.
As many as 80 percent of Indians believe that the media is somewhat or completely free in the country – the fourth highest figure among the 35 countries surveyed by the Washington-based think tank.
The report, however, found that only 43 percent Indians think it is very important that the media can report the news without state/ government censorship in their country. This is one of the lowest rates among all the countries surveyed. Only around 25 percent Indians believe that it is somewhat important that the media report news without state intervention.
Authored by Jacob Poushter, Maria Smerkovich, Moira Fagan andAndrew Prozorovsky, the Pew report is based on responses by over 52,000 people across the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East-North Africa region, North America and sub-Saharan Africa.
The findings on how Indians perceive press freedom are in a striking contrast with the country’s deteriorating media freedom rankings. In 2024, Reporters Without Borders ranked India 159 out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index.
The report also found that India and Kenya were the only countries where more people say the media in their country is actually free than those who believe freedom of the press is important.
More people in India believe their country’s press to be free than people in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, France and Greece among other nations. Among India’s neighbours, 78 percent people in Sri Lanka and 71 percent in Bangladesh perceive their press to be free.
More than 90 percent of people in 13 countries think that press freedom is very or somewhat important. Around 97 percent of people in Greece and Sweden believe press freedom to be important – the highest share among all countries. In Sri Lanka, 85 percent think that press freedom is very or somewhat important, and 69 percent in Bangladesh. Compared to India, a large share of people in Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa believe press freedom is important.
The report also shared findings on how people perceive fake news in different countries.
According to the report, 81 percent of Indians think that “made-up news and information”, or fake news, is a very big problem in their country. Nine countries, including Brazil, Türkiye, Chile and Peru, have 90 percent or more people who look at fake news as a problem.
Overall, 66 percent Indians believe that it is somewhat or very important that people can use the internet without government censorship. Nearly 85 percent believe that they are free to use the internet without censorship.
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