Indian news media fight virus on financial, political fronts

NEW DELHI (AP) — India's news publishers face a delicate balancing act as they look to offset financial losses from sinking ad sales with support from a government seeking to control the narrative on the coronavirus, sometimes by prosecuting journalists for reporting on the detrimental consequences of official pandemic policy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose combative relationship with the press has been likened to President Donald Trump's, has given no press conferences since taking office in 2014. The pandemic has upped the pressure on media, as officials try to keep a tight lid on information, using government TV and social media channels to carry live national addresses, provide policy information and question the credibility of critical news reports.

Since March 24, India's 1.3 billion people have been living under one of the world's strictest stay-at-home orders, mostly kept indoors except to pick up food and other necessities. Essential workers including hospital staff, pharmacists, grocers and journalists have been exempt.

Andrew Sam Raja Pandian, editor of a local news site in Coimbatore, a city in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, was detained Tuesday under India’s 19th-century Epidemic Diseases Act for reporting that trainee doctors were going hungry and that employees of government ration shops were stealing food.

Earlier this month, a Coimbatore city official accused Pandian of making “false” reports that could incite health and food distribution employees to strike, imperiling the Tamil Nadu state government’s COVID response, according to a police report reviewed by The Associated Press.

Pandian is charged with “disobeying regulations during a pandemic.” He faces up to three years in prison if convicted.

Such incidents have grown more common, making it harder and more dangerous for...