India is currently ranked 157th out of 180 countries in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index.
A tricky encounter with a Norwegian journalist has shone a light on the reluctance of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and members of his government to engage directly with the media on uncomfortable issues.
After Helle Lyng Svendsen from Norwegian daily Dagsavisen asked Modi why he wouldn’t take questions from the press, and later the same day asked a senior official of India’s Ministry of External Affairs about India’s human rights record, Modi’s response was to walk away without replying while his minister’s was to try to deflect by talking about unrelated facets of India’s past and present, and then to become visibly angry.
India’s prime minister was in Norway on a two-day visit as part of a tour of northern Europe. On Monday, he met with Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store and, on Tuesday, Modi took part in the third edition of the India-Nordic Summit, before leaving for Italy, where he is meeting Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday.
Modi has not held a single news conference in India during his 12-year term in office. On his multiple trips abroad, he has only rarely fielded questions – including two in Washington, DC, in 2023.
The incidents in Norway have renewed criticism from media organisations, which point to India’s sliding rankings in press freedom indices.
So why has Modi’s encounter with a Norwegian journalist led to criticism and what do we know about media freedom in India?
On Monday, Modi wrote on X that he was addressing a “press meet” with Norway’s Prime Minister Store. However, he did not take any questions from reporters.
When Norwegian journalist Helle Lyng Svendsen from the daily newspaper Dagsavisen, asked: “Prime Minister Modi, why don’t you take some questions from the freest press in the world?” he simply walked out of the conference room. It is not known if the Indian leader heard the question.
Svendsen followed Modi out of the news conference room and asked: “Do you deserve the trust of our … [government]?”
But she did not receive a response to that question, either.
She later took to social media to criticise the Indian prime minister.
“In Norway, when foreign leaders visit, the press usually will get to ask questions. Not many, but a few. That was not the case today with Modi, and will not be tomorrow either,” she wrote on X.
She told Al Jazeera on Tuesday: “We were, of course, expecting him not to answer questions, as that is what the PM does. However, it is our duty to try. I am a privileged journalist as I am reporting from one of the safest countries in the world. If I do not dare to ask questions, who will? I know the situation is alarming for my journalist colleagues in India.”
Store, the Norwegian PM, initially addressed questions from the Norwegian media but not from Indian journalists. However, he later did speak with Indian reporters, too.
Later on Monday, at a separate news conference, Svendsen also questioned the Indian Ministry of External Affairs’s Secretary (West) Sibi George about human rights in India and asked why Norway should trust India amid rights violations there. Human rights organisations have said religious minorities in particular have faced increasing attacks – including physical, psychological and economic persecution – in recent years, with hate crimes and hate speech rising year on year. Critics have pointed to a series of laws on interreligious marriages, religious conversions and a controversial law that discriminates against Muslim asylum seekers from India’s neighbourhood as examples of moves that they say undermine India’s secular constitution.
But George responded by talking about India’s past – how chess was invented in the country, and how the idea of “zero” is believed to have originated in India. He spoke of the millions of vaccines and medicines that India had shared with other Global South nations during the COVID-19 pandemic. “So we are proud of that civilisation. Yoga … originated in India,” he said.
At one point during the news conference, Svendsen interrupted him and asked George why he was not answering her question about human rights.
George, visibly angry by the interruption, responded: “India is a civilisational country.”
He also defended India’s human rights record: “We hear a lot of people asking why this, why that, but let me tell you this. We are one sixth of the total population of the world, but not one sixth of the problems of the world,” George said.
“We have a constitution which guarantees the fundamental rights of the people. We have equal rights for the women of our country, which is very important,” he added.
Svendsen later wrote on X: “Journalism is sometimes confrontational. We seek answers. If any interview subject, especially with power, do not answer what I asked, I will try to interrupt and get a more focused response. That is my job & duty. I want answers and not just talking points.”
The encounter led to a flurry of comments, social media memes and articles, including in the Indian media – some supporting George, but many criticising him, either for dodging Svendsen’s question or for not defending the Indian government well enough.
This is not the first time Modi has been criticised for avoiding questions from journalists since he came to power in 2014.
In fact, Modi has not held a single news conference at home during his 12-year term in office. He has been interviewed – usually by media organisations viewed as close to the government. In at least some cases, his office has insisted that media organisations share questions in advance with them. In a few instances, at least, Modi’s office has insisted on only responding to questions in writing – a dynamic that eliminates the possibility of follow-up questions.
In 2023, when Modi attended a joint news conference in Washington, DC, with then-US President Joe Biden, journalist Sabrina Siddiqui of The Wall Street Journal tried to ask him about the treatment of religious minorities and press freedom in India. Modi responded by saying that democracy is “in India’s DNA” and that the country does not discriminate between people irrespective of their caste, creed or religion. But after the question, Siddiqui – a Muslim Pakistani-American journalist – faced intense online harassment and trolling from supporters of Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Some also targeted her religious faith and questioned her roots.
Svendsen told Al Jazeera that she, too, had been subjected to harassment online after the two conferences: “There is a lot of trolling and alarming comments. Some constructive criticism as well, which I welcome.
“Us Norwegians are direct, so I understand that it might be surprising to some. But most of all, so many supporting people appreciating my question to Modi. It is also impactful that my reporting is being discussed in the political sphere in India,” she said.
Yet while Modi has been reluctant to participate in unscripted press briefings, not all Indian PMs have hesitated from interactions with journalists. Modi’s predecessor Manmohan Singh addressed large, annual press briefings where journalists often posed difficult, headline-grabbing questions. Singh also regularly held press conferences with journalists while he was travelling outside the country.
And Indira Gandhi, the last Indian prime minister to visit Norway, in June 1983, fielded questions from reporters during that trip, in Oslo, alongside her Norwegian counterpart Kare Willoch.
Besides online social media commentary from journalists and critics, India’s opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi also criticised Modi’s failure to take questions in Norway, writing on social media, “when there is nothing to hide, there is nothing to fear”.
“What happens to India’s image when the world sees a compromised PM panic and run from a few questions?” Gandhi wrote on X on Monday.
Kunal Majumder, Asia Pacific
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