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ExploreFree Speech TrackerTrack Violations across Categories, States & Years

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The Free Speech Tracker is a database that records free speech violations in India across various categories. Tracked violations can be searched across categories, states or years. Categories covered include Arrests, Attacks, Censorship, Harassment, Internet Control, Killings, Lawfare, Policies/Regulations, and Threats.

Please visit the About Us page for a guide to free speech violations tracked by FSC,

Numbers are liable to change and violations may be reclassified in case of discrepancies in reporting or updates due to developments in ongoing cases. In case of updates or corrections and to report free speech violations, please contact us.

[Note: The data included currently is for 2025 as updates for previous years is under process. For details of previous years, please go to the Reports section.]

Violations

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Lawfare

2 journalists, C.G. Shankar and S. Mani, detained for filming Iranian warship docked in India

State: Kerala

Year: 2026

Date: March 7, 2026

Lawfare, National Security – Journalists

Shankar, Mani, and a boat driver were detained on March 7 by officers from a paramilitary force after allegedly entering a restricted area to film an Iranian naval vessel docked at a port in Kochi, a city in the southern state of Kerala, according to multiple news reports.

News agency IANS reported that officials had earlier denied the journalists permission to film the IRIS Lavan, which India granted refuge amid intensifying U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, including a U.S. submarine attack that sank another Iranian naval vessel, the IRIS Dena.

The three were later handed over to Kerala Harbor Police, who opened an investigation under the Official Secrets Act — a British colonial-era law that criminalizes collecting, receiving, or disseminating a broad range of documents and information that could affect national security or relations with foreign countries — and sections of the Indian penal code related to criminal trespass.

“Using the Official Secrets Act against Republic TV journalists C.G. Shankar and S. Mani is extremely alarming and Indian authorities should immediately drop all potential charges,” said CPJ’s Asia-Pacific Program Coordinator Kunal Majumder. “While reports suggest the journalists may have proceeded after being denied permission to film, the full circumstances of what happened are unclear — and deploying a law intended to criminalize spying is a massive overreach.”

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Lawfare

Case registered against man for calling PM Modi ‘traitor’ on social media

State: Kerala

Year: 2026

Date: March 6, 2026

Lawfare, General – Others

A case has been registered against a man for allegedly calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “traitor” on a social media post at Sreekandapuram here, police said on Saturday.

According to police, the case was registered against Rajan C Kottoor, a native of Kottoor, on Friday following a complaint lodged by a BJP activist.

As per the FIR, the accused made the comment on a Facebook post on March 3, calling PM Modi a “traitor”.

The FIR alleged that the accused defamed the Prime Minister and indulged in a provocative act with the intention of causing a riot.

The case has been registered under section 192 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause a riot and section 120(o) of the Kerala Police Act for causing nuisance.

Police said the investigation began on Friday evening after the complaint was received.

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Censorship

Kashmir Life Facebook, Instagram Pages Restricted in India

State: Applicable Across India

Year: 2026

Date: March 2, 2026

Censorship – News Media / Documentaries

The verified Facebook and Instagram pages of Kashmir Life became inaccessible in India on Monday afternoon after Meta restricted access at the request of law enforcement authorities.Kashmir culture coverage

Reports of the page’s inaccessibility began reaching the newsroom around 4:30 pm, when readers from across the country said they were unable to view the publication’s Facebook page. There had been no prior public notice or communication before access was blocked.

Subsequently, Meta put an auto response to the page suggesting that it had restricted access to the content in India “pursuant to a notice from ‘The Government of India V Law Enforcement’ under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.” The communication advised the organisation to contact the issuing authority for further information and stated that details regarding content restrictions based on local law are available through Meta’s Transparency Centre.

Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, empowers authorities to require intermediaries to disable access to content upon receiving actual knowledge through a court order or government notification.

On Instagram, where Kashmir Life also maintains a presence, a notice displayed on the platform reads: “We received a legal request to restrict this content. We reviewed it against our policies and conducted a legal and human rights assessment. After the review, we restricted access to the content in the location where it goes against local law.”

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Censorship

X Withholds Another of The Wire’s Cartoons on Modi in India, Cites ‘Legal Demand’

State: Applicable Across India

Year: 2026

Date: February 27, 2026

Censorship – News Media / Documentaries

A satirical animated cartoon of Prime Minister Narendra Modi being awarded an invented medal during his Israel visit and Knesset speech, presented humorously to The Wire’s over 1.3 million X followers, has been “withheld in India”.

The 37-second cartoon, featuring Modi, the Speaker of the Knesset and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has a jingle in Hindi: “Medal Mila Hai VishwaGuru Ko” (The World’s Guru has got a medal) to the tune of ‘Chura Liya Hai’ from the film Yaadon ki Baaraat.

It was posted on X on February 27, 2026, but viewers of The Wire now see the following stock message for censored posts, instead of the humorous cartoon presented to its viewers:

Ironically, the hundreds of viewers’ responses to The Wire’s animation – appreciative, neutral, or critical – are still accessible to all on X, including more satirical animations posted by some on the platform.

Also, the post, originally in Hindi, is still available on TheWireHindi on X.

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Arrests, Lawfare

Day after JNU clash, 14 students arrested for protest get bail

State: Delhi

Year: 2026

Date: February 26, 2026

Arrests – Others | Lawfare, Detention – Others

On Thursday afternoon, hundreds of students joined a “Long March” organised by the JNUSU from Sabarmati T-point to the ministry of education, demanding the vice-chancellor’s resignation over her alleged caste-related remarks in a recent podcast interview.

The march was halted at JNU’s heavily barricaded main gate, where a strong police presence prevented protesters from moving forward. Clashes broke out when students attempted to advance, leading to multiple detentions.

Later that night, students attempted another march from the JNU main gate towards the Ambience Mall gate, demanding the release of those detained. By Friday morning, 37 of the 51 detained students had been released, while 14 were formally arrested.

Those arrested include JNUSU president Aditi Mishra, vice-president Gopika, joint secretary Danish and former president Nitish Kumar.

The Patiala House Courts on Friday granted bail to all 14 students, directing each to furnish a bond of ₹25,000 and a surety of the like amount.

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Lawfare

Azim Premji University files police complaint against students who organised Kashmir event

State: Karnataka

Year: 2026

Date: February 24, 2026

Lawfare, General – Others

The Azim Premji University has filed a complaint with the police against its own students who are in charge of the Spark Reading Circle APU, accusing them of instigating trouble at the university and repeatedly “defaming” the university.

APU Registrar Rishikesh BS filed a complaint with the Sarjapura police on February 24, the day ABVP members forcibly entered the university over a planned discussion on alleged violence in Kashmir. The complaint names the Spark Reading Circle APU Instagram account.

Rishikesh said in his complaint that on February 24, social media posts regarding an event on that day at Kabira, an open space on campus to cultural events, were brought to his attention.

The organisers of the event, Spark Reading circle APU, had created a post that said that Kunan-Poshpora, villages in Kashmir, saw “one of the most gruesome incidents of mass rape” on February 23, 1991, allegedly by army men and that not a single conviction had taken place.

He said that when he asked faculty members about such an event, none of them had any information because “if any such event is to be held written permission has to be sought, but no such permission was sought or given”.

Rishikesh said that soon after this, a group of people forcibly entered the university campus and vandalised property in several areas, raised slogans and wrote graffiti against Spark Reading circle and AISA. The police then removed them from campus, the Registrar said. A complaint regarding this was filed with the police.

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Attacks

ABVP members enter Azim Premji University, assault student, deface campus over Kashmir event

State: Karnataka

Year: 2026

Date: February 24, 2026

Attacks – Others

Chaotic scenes unfolded at Azim Premji University on Tuesday, February 24, after members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) – the student wing of the RSS, barged into the campus and vandalised property over an event on state violence in Kashmir. Later in the evening, the police removed the ABVP members from the campus and stayed on to prevent any further incidents.

Mamata (name changed), a masters student at APU, told TNM that a group of over 20 ABVP members, who are not part of the campus, barged into the APU campus in Sarjapura around 6.30 pm.

The trigger for the ABVP barging into the APU campus was an event organised by a student club. Spark APU Reading Circle had organised an event at 6pm to discuss the alleged mass rape of Kashmiri women in Kunan Poshpora village in Kupwara district by Indian armed forces on February 23, 1991. The day of the alleged rapes is observed as Kashmiri Women’s Resistance Day.

The Indian army has denied that any such incident ever took place, but a 2013 petition in the Supreme Court resulted in a reinvestigation of the case.

Mamata said that the reading circle organises events once a month and invites students to participate by distributing pamphlets and spreading the word on WhatsApp.

“We don’t know how ABVP found out about it. They’re definitely not APU students. Security staff tried to stop them but they pushed past them and came inside. They raised slogans such as ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, ‘Vande Mataram’ and called us anti-national. This is the first time something like this has happened,” Mamata said.

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Censorship

“Da’Lit Kids” was pulled out of the Animela Film Festival

State: Maharashtra

Year: 2026

Date: February 19, 2026

Censorship – The Arts

An SRFTI Dalit student’s Malayalam short film, ‘Da’lit Kids’, was removed from the Animela Animation Film Festival line-up a day before its Mumbai screening, after the ministry of information & broadcasting reportedly denied the usual student-film exemption without providing a written reason. In protest, other SRFTI film-makers withdrew their entries, leaving the SRFTI slot empty at the fest on Sunday.

SRFTI hosted two back-to-back, houseful campus screenings on Saturday night under the slogans “censorship will not silence truth” and “cinema will continue to resist”. FTII Students’ Union has demanded an immediate review of the exemption refusal.

Appu Soman’s ‘Da’lit Kids’, screened at International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala and Dharamshala International Film Festival, is about how a boy from a marginalised community defies humiliation, drawing strength from his ancestors. It explores caste discrimination, the normalised gaze directed at Dalit people, and the power of education, rights, and free expression.

Animela festival director Nina Sabnani said SRFTI was the festival’s “education partner” and had created a signature film for the event.

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Attacks

Manipur: Khoirom Loyalakpa, Editor-in-chief of local vernacular daily, shot at, assaulted; probe on

State: Manipur

Year: 2026

Date: February 18, 2026

Attacks – Journalists

Unknown armed assailants on Wednesday night shot at and allegedly assaulted Khoirom Loyalakpa, the editor-in-chief of local vernacular daily ‘Naharolgi Thoudang’ when he was returning home from office, officials confirmed on Thursday.

Police said the incident occurred around 10pm near Hatta War cemetery in Imphal East, under the jurisdiction of Porompat police station. An unknown car, suspected to be a Maruti Swift, allegedly tailing editor Loyalakpa’s vehicle, blocked his car. Assailants alighted and fired two rounds at the left window glass.

The attackers then overpowered the victim and allegedly assaulted him with a hard object, injuring his teeth and face. They then fled the scene in the same car after locals gathered after hearing the gunshots.

During investigation, the police recovered two empty .32 calibre bullet cases from the area.

A complaint has been lodged at Porompat police station in connection with the incident for further investigation and to nab the perpetrators.

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Censorship

DU Proctor Issues Month-Long Ban on Protests and Public Gatherings Across Campus

State: Delhi

Year: 2026

Date: February 17, 2026

Censorship – Protests/Meetings

Delhi University has announced a month-long ban on protests and public gatherings across campus, citing concerns over safety and public order.

The University of Delhi has imposed a temporary prohibition on protests, demonstrations, and public gatherings across its campuses for a period of one month, according to an official order issued by the Office of the Proctor on February 17, 2026.

The circular, addressed to students, faculty members, and staff, states that all forms of public meetings, processions, rallies, dharnas, and demonstrations are “strictly prohibited” within university premises with immediate effect. The restriction will remain in force until March 17, 2026, unless withdrawn earlier.

According to the order, the decision was taken following inputs suggesting that unrestricted gatherings on campus could lead to traffic obstruction, threats to human life, and disturbances to public peace. The Proctor’s Office noted that in previous instances, protest organizers had allegedly failed to manage crowds effectively, leading to escalation and deterioration of law and order within university spaces.

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