A report published by Reuters on 28 June has once again stirred up debate on the role of government funding in media. The report, citing unnamed sources, stated that the Modi government had stopped providing government advertising to at least three major media groups in the country who account for a combined monthly readership of around 26 million people – roughly 2 per cent of India's population. The de facto freeze in ads has reportedly affected the Times of India, the Hindu, and the Telegraph, though none of them have gone on record or challenged this undeclared ban.
Unnamed employees of all three media houses claimed the ban was a result of critical reporting about the media. According to the Reuters report, the Hindu had allegedly lost advertising contracts around March 2019 when it began in-depth reporting on an irregular government deal to buy jet planes from a French company. The Ananda Bazar Patrika group, whose paper the Telegraph has reported critically on the Modi government's policies, had reportedly seen a 15 percent drop in government advertisements. One executive at Bennet and Coleman Group said there was a freeze on government advertising, possibly because the government was unhappy with some of its papers' reports.
Since coming to power in 2014, the Modi government has overseen a serious rise in the suppression of journalists and media organisation. During the last five years, media workers have been harassed, assaulted, sued and even murdered. India's position on the World Press Freedom Index has dropped continuously since 2016.
It is no surprise that ads were withdrawn during the months leading up to the Lok Sabha elections and Modi's re-election campaign. Denial of ad revenue to non-compliant media organisations is an extremely efficient and bloodless method of silencing dissenting voices.