India ranks low in terms of press freedom; it comes in at 136 out of 180 countries in the 2015 World Press Freedom Index.

Worse still, many people who kill journalists in the country also get away scot-free, says a report from a non-profit organization called the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The organization released the latest version of its Impunity Index that tracks unsolved murders of journalists and requires at least five such cases since 2005 for countries to qualify.

India had 11 such cases with no conviction to show.

The country shares space in this index with a group of 13 other nations including Pakistan, South Sudan, Afghanistan and Somalia. This is despite the fact that India ranks higher in rule of law than most others in this group.

While India slipped from 13 to 14 this year on account of two new entrants (Bangladesh and South Sudan) and only one exit (Colombia), its impunity rating rose from 0.006 unsolved journalist murders per million inhabitants to 0.008.

The case of freelance journalist Jagendra Singh, who turned his Facebook page into an unencumbered local news source, writing about illegal mining and politics in Uttar Pradesh, is well known.

He was killed for his reportage. He said in his dying declaration in June that the police came to his home and set him on fire on a local minister’s orders.

The impunity index report noted that another journalist was assaulted and dragged behind a motorcycle a few days after Singh’s murder and yet another reporter went missing in West Bengal, among other assaults.

The report excludes deaths during reporting on conflict situations such as war or street protests. The data has been collected over a 10-year period.

India ranks higher than six out of nine of its peers in this group in terms of rule of law, according to the 2015 World Justice Project rankings. Rankings for the four others, including Syria and Iraq, were not available.

“It is precisely this kind of contradiction that concerns CPJ and indicates to us that there is a lack of political will to prosecute when journalists are killed," said Elisabeth Witchel, Impunity Campaign Consultant to CPJ. She noted that in India there is a common pattern of an initial investigation, some arrests and then releases as the investigation comes to a standstill.

The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization in its 2008 Press Freedom and Development report noted that while one cannot come to a conclusion on press freedom and causality with factors such as poverty, a free press is important for development.

“A free press always has a positive influence... It serves as an intermediary between individuals and government, informing the latter of people’s needs and acting as a buffer against crises and situations of extreme deprivation; it holds governments accountable and makes their actions more transparent..." said the report.

Witchel added that in one way, the situation is getting worse. There have been more journalists murdered in the last two years than the previous eight combined. None of the perpetrators have been brought to justice. Protests and increased awareness of the issues may help the cause for justice, she said.

The report found fault with the government’s approach too.

“The government has shown little indication it is willing to tackle the problem. It is not a sponsor of any of the recent UN resolutions on Safety of Journalists & Impunity that have been adopted in recent years," it said.

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