For the second year running, two entities are on the Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) Press Freedom Predators list – the Adani Group and OpIndia. RSF released the 2026 edition ahead of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists on November 2. It profiles 33 ‘predators’, which is one fewer than last year’s 34. 

Adani appeared in the ‘Legal – They subject journalists to judicial harassment’ category, alongside figures like Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Hong Kong’s chief executive John Lee Ka-chiu, and Brendan Carr, head of the United States' Federal Communications Commission (FCC). OpIndia, meanwhile, appears in the ‘Social - They smear media and promote mistrust of journalists’ category alongside figures like Elon Musk and Argentine President Javier Milei, who shared “1,674 posts hostile to journalists and media outlets on X over 47 days between April and May 2026,” according to RSF.  

Both the Adani Group and OpIndia were on the 2025 list and in the same categories too. India currently ranks 157th out of 180 countries in the RSF’s World Press Freedom Index. 

RSF says this list of ‘Press Freedom Predators’ is a “counterpart to its annual World Press Freedom Index”. It sorts the predators into five categories drawn from the Index’s indicators (political, security, economic, legal and social), and it’s based on attacks carried out during 2026. Thibaut Bruttin, RSF director-general, concedes the list is “subjective”, but says it only includes leaders and organisations that showed an “unmistakable determination” to target the media. 

The Adani gag model

RSF describes a pattern litigation. Since 2017, the group and its subsidiaries “have brought around ten legal actions against more than 15 critical journalists and media outlets since 2017.” RSF says these cases amount to “a systematic use of gag suits”, pairing civil and criminal defamation complaints to “silence independent journalism”. 

This year’s record includes the arrest and week-long detention in September of investigative journalist Ravi Nair, in a criminal defamation case brought by the group.  Released on bail, Nair faces three defamation suits over his reporting and social media posts about the conglomerate. According to RSF, journalists across India face 11 ongoing civil and criminal proceedings over their coverage of the group and its subsidiaries.

OpIndia: Smear as strategy

RSF calls the Hindutva-aligned website “notorious” for its attacks on independent journalism. It says OpIndia casts reliable news media as part of a “liberal media cartel,” and that it mobilises online trolls to amplify the line. Critical journalists are routinely tagged as “propagandists” for foreign powers, part of a “Soros ecosystem” or an “anti-India lobby”.

In 2026, RSF counted dozens of OpIndia articles targeting journalists and outlets, some followed by waves of online harassment. Its most striking example is outside India. Helle Lyng, a journalist at Norway’s Dagsavisen, criticised Modi’s refusal to take press questions in Oslo. In May, OpIndia profiled her as a “Chinese propaganda agent” who asked “loaded questions.” RSF says the profile “helped fuel” a massive hate campaign against her from accounts linked to the “Hindu nationalist far right”.

A shifting list

The 2026 list drops several names, including Ali Khamenei, Nicolás Maduro, Viktor Orbán and Aleksandar Vučić. RSF notes that Orbán and Vučić lost elections, and says that shows citizens will ultimately punish attacks on civil liberties when given the chance. It adds Donald Trump, Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Kazakhstan’s Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. 

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