India reported 14,875 instances of free speech violations in 2025, including the killing of eight journalists and one social media influencer, the Free Speech Collective said in a report on Tuesday.
The Free Speech Collective is an organisation that monitors violations of free speech in India. In its report, it recorded instances of censorship, court gag orders, restrictions affecting academic autonomy, film censorship, regulatory policies, and corporate interventions to regulate free speech during the year.
One hundred and seventeen arrests linked to free speech violations were reported during the year, including the arrests of eight journalists, the report said.
The Free Speech Collective also said that 33 of the 40 attacks related to free speech targeted journalists. Of the 19 instances of harassment, 14 involved journalists. Twelve cases of journalists receiving threats in the course of their work were also recorded, the report added.
Eight journalists were killed during the year: two in Uttar Pradesh and one each in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Karnataka, Odisha, and Uttarakhand. A social media influencer was killed in Punjab.
The report added that two journalists, Irfan Mehraj from Kashmir and Rupesh Kumar from Jharkhand, remained in custody this year under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. Mehraj has been jailed since March 2023 and Kumar since July 2022.
Gujarat recorded the highest number of free speech violations at 108, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 83 and Kerala at 78.
The report also said that there had been 11,385 instances of censorship and 208 cases of “lawfare”, referring to the use of legal action to cause problems for an opponent.
The censorship figures include mass takedown requests issued by the Union government to social media platform X. In May, the government sought to withhold access to more than 8,000 accounts on the social media platform in India, the highest number recorded in any month.
The report also recorded 3,070 instances of internet control in 2025, such as internet shutdowns and the blocking of mobile applications.
The Free Speech Collective said that there had been at least 16 “serious instances” of censorship in academia.
The report also highlighted the “untrammelled use of [film] certification as a tool of censorship”. It cited the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting this month denying the International Film Festival of Kerala permission to screen 19 films.
The report also raised concern about the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, the rules for which were notified in November, noting that they could endanger journalism and weaken India’s transparency regime by diluting the Right to Information Act.
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