Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Paris-based media freedom watchdog, has included India’s Adani Group and the pro-Hindutva news portal OpIndia in its updated gallery of “Press Freedom Predators” – entities the organisation accuses of systematically undermining independent journalism.
The 2025 list, which RSF describes as leaders, groups or institutions that “kill, imprison, censor, harass or discredit journalists”, places the conglomerate chaired by Gautam Adani and the website alongside figures such as China’s Communist Party under Xi Jinping, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and, controversially, Elon Musk for his handling of content moderation on X.
India currently ranks 151st out of 180 countries in RSF’s annual World Press Freedom Index.
Adani Group accused of weaponising defamation law
RSF singled out the Adani Group for what it called the “systematic” use of civil and criminal defamation suits and so-called gagging orders to silence critical reporting. The organisation claims that since 2017 the ports-to-power conglomerate has initiated roughly ten legal actions against more than 15 journalists and media outlets.
In 2025 alone has seen at least two ex-parte injunctions obtained by Adani entities that, according to RSF, effectively allow the group to unilaterally determine which published material is defamatory – orders subsequently extended to third parties. Outlets including The Wire, Newslaundry, DW News and independent journalist Ravish Kumar were compelled to remove content following such rulings.
“These gagging orders create the possibility of unlimited censorship,” RSF stated.
OpIndia labelled a conduit for coordinated harassment
The watchdog described OpIndia as a “Hindu nationalist website” that routinely targets journalists critical of the Narendra Modi government. It accused the portal of functioning as a hub for conspiracy theories and of mobilising troll networks to discredit mainstream reporters by portraying them as part of a foreign-funded “anti-India lobby” or “Soros ecosystem”.
RSF cited 96 articles published by OpIndia in 2025 that it says personally attacked journalists or media organisations, including a 200-page dossier alleging a coordinated “narrative war” against the current administration.
The inclusion of an Indian corporate conglomerate and a domestic digital media outlet in the same list as authoritarian regimes and military juntas is unusual and is likely to intensify the long-running debate in India over the balance between reputational protection, national interest and press freedom.
Neither the Adani Group nor OpIndia had issued a public response to the RSF designation at the time of publication.
