Sébastien Farcis, a French journalist working for Radio France Internationale, , and the Swiss and Belgian public radios, on X that India’s government had refused to renew his work permit. He wrote that they had given no explanation for preventing him from practising his profession and “depriving me of all my income.” Farcis had left India three days before.
Three years earlier, in March 2021, Indian authorities made it imperative for foreign correspondents who had the Overseas Citizen of India—OCI—card by virtue of being married to an Indian citizen to obtain a work permit. Farcis was denied such a permit despite having been married to an Indian national and having worked in India for thirteen years. Farcis and two other foreign journalists have been forced to leave the country this year as their journalist work permits were not renewed.
In April, Avani Dias, who worked for the Australian broadcaster ABC News as its South Asia bureau chief, said that the Indian government had denied her a visa extension after she published a on the killing of Sikh separatist in Canada. Canada has accused Indian government agents of being involved in the crime. Her report is still blocked on YouTube in India.
“It felt too difficult to do my job in India. I was struggling to get into public events run by [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi’s party. The government wouldn’t even give me the passes I needed to cover the election,” she said, referring to the national election that t.
