The Editors Guild of India has strongly criticised attempts by a section of officials in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to justify Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reluctance to address unscripted press conferences in India or abroad.
Responding to an MEA official’s assertion that Prime Minister Modi, as a successful politician, prefers to communicate directly with his largely rural electorate rather than engage with the media, the Guild described the argument as fundamentally flawed.
The Guild said the Prime Minister is accountable to both rural and urban citizens and must address pressing political, economic and international issues affecting the country. At a time when the world is grappling with an unprecedented energy crisis triggered by the war in West Asia, it noted that the Prime Minister has remained reluctant to share his views through independent media platforms.
The statement emphasised that in democracies across the world, elected leaders regularly engage with journalists and answer unscripted questions as part of the democratic process. The media, it said, serves as a representative of the public by seeking accountability from those in positions of power and pressing for answers on issues of national importance.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Editors Guild of India President Sanjay Kapoor, General Secretary Raghavan Srinivasan, and Treasurer Teresa Rehman urged senior government officials to refrain from offering what they described as “glib platitudes” to defend the absence of press interactions. They said such explanations risk further undermining media freedom and contributing to a chilling effect on free speech.
