When The Yellow Boom launched, several well-meaning people advised me to avoid stories that might upset powerful interests. The advice was offered kindly, motivated by genuine concern for the publication’s survival.
I declined. Not because I am reckless, but because I understand what a news organisation is actually for.
What Journalism Is
A free press is not a luxury good or a cultural export from Western liberal democracies. It is the information infrastructure of democratic governance. Without independent journalism, citizens cannot make informed electoral choices. Without informed electoral choices, accountability collapses. Without accountability, democracy is a performance.
India’s Constitution enshrines freedom of the press not as an afterthought but as a foundational right precisely because the framers understood this logic. They had lived under colonialism. They knew what it meant to have a press controlled by power.
The test of a free press is not whether it publishes stories that governments find comfortable. The test is whether it publishes stories that governments find inconvenient — and whether citizens can read them.