- Saturday, March 01, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
A top official in the US has lauded the freedom of press in India and the role its journalists play in supporting the world’s largest democracy which recently became the planet’s most populous nation overtaking China.
Donald Lu, US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, said that “there is nothing that’s kept secret there. You have India as a democracy in part because you have a free press that really works.”
“I know the media market is changing. But I have such respect for the freedom of the press in India. There is nothing that’s kept secret there. You have India as a democracy in part because you have a free press that really works,” Lu told PTI in Washington.
“I can remember going into MEA (ministry of external affairs) once and seeing a senior person with files stacked up to the ceiling because he was processing a Right For Information request. And he was complaining bitterly about having to do this and I could only laugh because we have to do the same thing in our bureaucracy where if someone asks for a document, I have to spend several days finding the document for them because that’s what democracy does,” he said.
Lu appreciated the role of the journalists and the work they do to support Indian democracy.
According to United Nations estimates, India has become the most populous country in the world with 1.4286 billion people.
(With PTI inputs)
