President of the Women’s Press Club, Sujata Raghavan, and Dr Waiel Awwad throughout a panel dialogue on “Safeguarding Press Freedom” on the Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC), in New Delhi on Saturday, May 2, 2026.
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ANI
Several outstanding journalists, representing totally different organisations, have expressed concern over the current standing of media professionals in totally different locations and press freedom.
Press Association president C Ok Naik, Editors Guild of India common secretary Raghavan Srinivasan and Foreign Correspondents Club of South Asia (FCC) president Waiel Awwad spoke at a panel dialogue organised by the Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC) on the event of World Press Freedom Day, in line with a launch issued by the IWPC on Sunday.
The topic of the dialogue was “Safeguarding Press Freedom Amidst Global Upheaval”.
India’s deteriorating press freedom
The occasion was held in the backdrop of a current report that India has slipped to the 157th place amongst 180 international locations in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index launched by Reporters Without Borders, marking a six-place drop from the earlier 12 months, the discharge stated.
Awwad, who can be the president of the International Association of Press Clubs (IAPCs), warned that assaults on journalists have moved from incidental to deliberate.
“This is part of a systematic attempt to stop the truth from being told,” he stated, stressing the pressing want for stronger worldwide mechanisms to guard reporters on the bottom.
He highlighted current “targeted” killing of journalists in Gaza.
A urgent concern
Srinivasan identified to deep structural failures inside the business and stated: “Many troubling trends in the media have become normalised, from ownership-driven bias to editorial pressure.”
Expressing concern {that a} new technology could not absolutely grasp the occupation’s core values, he highlighted the financial disaster dealing with conventional media, noting that declining audiences and readership straight influence monetary viability and editorial independence.
A name for solidarity
Naik turned the highlight inward on a fractured occupation.
“We have become our own enemy,” he stated, citing the absence of coordinated resistance and the weak spot of press bodies as essential vulnerabilities at a time when journalists want solidarity essentially the most.
In conclusion, IWPC president Sujata Raghavan stated, “We are here to collectively reflect, speak up and build a more robust environment for journalism, which remains central to the democratic ethos.”
Published on May 3, 2026