NEW DELHI — An Indian television reporter set out this week to cover a large youth protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, expecting a routine live broadcast. What he got instead was a violent beating at the hands of dozens of demonstrators.
Dev Kotak, a general news reporter for the Times Now channel, was surrounded and attacked by protesters chanting “godi media” — a Hindi phrase meaning “lapdog media” — because his channel is widely perceived as favorable to the government. The assault was recorded on mobile phones and quickly spread across social media.
“The mob might have actually killed me. There was a seething anger among them because they felt the media hadn’t reported their side of the story,” said Kotak, 36. “There were slaps, kicks, punches and water bottles being thrown. I was very scared and feared for my life; I just wanted to get out alive.”
While the physical attack on Kotak was extreme, crews from nearly every major Indian television network have faced heckling and verbal abuse throughout the protests, with demonstrators accusing them of being government mouthpieces who have sold out their journalistic principles.
Tensions escalated sharply after police moved against tens of thousands of protesters who were marching on parliament on Monday, leaving many students injured.
“People kept shouting that we hadn’t shown their side of the story,” Kotak said. “That’s simply not true — I’ve reported injuries on both sides.”
Times Now’s editor-in-chief, Navika Kumar, did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Reuters.
The hostility aimed at reporters is part of a wider conversation about press freedom in India, which has eroded significantly since Modi came to power in 2014. India’s standing in the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index has dropped dramatically — from 122nd place in 2010 to 157th out of 180 countries in 2026.
The Paris-based organization has pointed to violence against journalists, concentrated media ownership among business interests aligned with the government, and growing political polarization as the driving factors behind that decline.
The Editors Guild of India condemned the anger directed at journalists from outlets seen as close to the ruling party. But the organization also acknowledged that “flawed and biased reporting not only makes a bad situation worse, but has more serious and longer-lasting consequences which impact the fabric of our society and also weaken the media’s position as one of the key pillars of a functional democracy.”
India’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry and the Prime Minister’s office did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party also declined to comment.
The term “godi media” is widely credited to prominent journalist Ravish Kumar, a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award — considered the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize. The phrase has stuck in part because it rhymes with Modi’s name.
Critics now apply the label to nearly all major television channels and some national newspapers, accusing them of failing to hold the government accountable, offering overly flattering coverage of Modi, and dismissing or attacking political opposition.
“The godi-media is anti-democracy, anti-people, anti-opposition,” Kumar said. “They vilify any opposition, label critics as agents of foreign governments, and barely ever feature voices of political parties from opposition.”
A spokesperson for the protest movement, led by the Cockroach Janta Party, said organizers have repeatedly asked demonstrators to treat reporters with respect. “We have urged and we keep urging protesters to not misbehave with godi-media,” said Deepak Baliyan. “Let them do their job. We want to make sure that no one gets mistreated here.”
Manisha Pande, editorial director of news website Newslaundry, said the deep distrust of mainstream media has been building for years. “We have always had propaganda, partisanship, opinion-driven prime-time news,” Pande said. “But what has really happened after 2014 is that you have seen a clear shift in how news has become anti-people.”
Digital commentator Akash Banerjee, a former Times Now journalist whose YouTube channel now draws millions of viewers, said the mainstream media’s reluctance to question the government has pushed audiences toward independent online sources. “The fact that the media has stopped questioning the government has resulted in a rise of alternative digital media, which would not have happened otherwise,” he said.
Pande cautioned that the growing anger toward reporters carries serious risks of its own. “The worrying part is that the anger has now taken on a life of its own,” she said. “For many protesters, a reporter is no longer seen as an individual but as the face of a thick-skinned media establishment that is responsible for their pain.”
