At her home in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Harleen Kapoor* reflects with melancholy on how, since Narendra Modi became prime minister in 2014, she has spent a lot of time in the office instead of out on the powerful human rights exposés she used to work on.
Stories from some of the most deprived areas in the country were her forte. But, she says, in the climate of fear that has built up in India in the past decade, her media outlet has made it clear that her reports on topics such as sexual violence against lower-caste women and the harassment of Muslims are no longer welcome.
When the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), which rules nationally, won power in Uttar Pradesh for a second term in 2022, the outlet told her to stop travelling altogether. Its finances were already fragile, and it feared losing government advertising.
