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In a special episode for Press Freedom Day, _Newslaundry_’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande and Jayashree Arunachalam are joined by historian and author Ramachandra Guha. The

panel begins with a discussion on the history of press freedom in India. Ram reflects on the similarities and differences between 1975’s Emergency and today. “The Modi regime has gone

farther than Indira’s regime by weaponising agencies in a much more systematic and planned way.” Commenting on the ‘downfall’ of mainstream media, Manisha adds, “The sheer anti-people

quality of the media, painting minorities as threats, is relentless and unprecedented.” The panel discusses the history of violence in Kashmir and the attacks on Kashmiris across India after

the Pahalgam terror attack. “One word from Modi and it would have stopped,” says Ram. Jayashree notes, “People are very happy to believe the worst qualities about Muslims and Kashmiris

right now, and the media is feeding into it.” This and a lot more. Tune in! _APOLOGY ON MAY 4: _ _We want to issue a sincere apology regarding how our Editor-in-Chief, Raman Kirpal,

described the recent incident in Nainital involving the sexual assault of a minor._ _In our earlier video, our editor wrongly described the incident as “small” and referred to it as “an

affair”. This was a factual error. We deeply regret it._ _As editors, we should have had full knowledge of what had happened before commenting on the matter. The responsibility to verify and

be cautious with our words rests squarely with us._ _We take full responsibility for this lapse. We have since re-uploaded the video after removing the inaccurate sentence._ _We stand by

the need for sensitive and factual journalism, especially in situations where misinformation and communal tensions can cause real harm._ HAFTA LETTERS: _Islamophobia on social media,

Kashmiris losing livelihood, Bengal voter demographics_