World Press Freedom Day is celebrated annually on 3rd May. This is the day when everyone agrees that journalism matters. To prove to the Jawaharlal Nehru haters that there once was a Prime Minister who believed that authority must remain open to scrutiny, Nehru fans share a well-known exchange between him and the cartoonist Shankar Pillai, in which Nehru remarked, “Don’t spare me, Shankar.”

We are celebrating World Press Freedom Day in an era when newsrooms have to dodge toxic and aggressive trolls while chasing the truth. Editors are scared not just of those in power but also of legal notices. Headlines are supposed to be punchy but very responsible. We are living in the times of hurt sentiments. Someone somewhere might get hurt by the most innocuous news.

On a day which is supposed to honour truth, Journalists around the world, may your sources speak, and your facts stick. Reporters, fact-checkers, and headline warriors, may your reports be accurate yet viral. May you always be able to dodge censorship, and your Wi-Fi always work strongly.

Let it finish the apple, it will speak.

Dancing to the tune of ……

Bol key lab aazad hain tere…

Newspapers should be sold after being printed…

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reports that its World Press Freedom Index has hit a “25-year low,” with more than half of the world’s countries currently falling into the “difficult” or “very serious” categories.

The public has the right to be informed without distortion. A free press is meaningful only when it can be inconvenient, probing, and persistent, even at the cost of being unpopular.

“Freedom of the press is not just important to democracy, it is democracy.” – Walter Cronkite.

Photos and text by Prerna Jain.