n ram in chennai, welcome to hardtalk. it's a pleasure, mr sackur.pleasure to have you on the programme. if i may say so, you are a leading member of india's media elite. you have been for years. so how would you characterise the freedom of the media in india today? what state is it in? there was a time, stephen, when i thought that india was in an enviable position, when it came to media freedom, independence and also the state of development of the media, certainly in comparison with the most developing countries. that's because that was about a0 years ago when we were liberated from the enslavement during the emergency, i remember that very well. and new opportunities opened up for accelerated development. it was... the environment was capacious. it was open, it was welcoming, and journalism seemed to have found the right causes. but if i said that today, i would be accused of providing fake news. but i dare say to many viewers around the world, india does look a little bit enviable when it comes to your media landscape. you have a cacophony of di

has been paid to the shorter of seafarers there's a lot of work to be done at the indian port city chennai containers full of cell phones, clothing chips and car parts are waiting to be loaded, but things are quiet here. many shipped can set sail. they can't find enough sailors. countries such as singapore, china and the united arab emirates aren't allowing indian sailors to come ashore for fear of spreading. the delta vary and that means crews can't be changed out. many shipping companies have fired their indian employees with a lack of alternatives. many have looked for different jobs or have gone into business for themselves, like this shop owner and directly to pandemic, hit a sale that was pretty hard and i lost my job as a seaman 14 months ago. during that time, i had no income and it was difficult to find another job. i was turned down again and again. now my situation is improved the low since i opened this store. nobody over. there are almost 240000 seafarers in india. 15 percent of the world sailors come from the asian country. shipping companies are eager to employ them. again.

there's a lot of work to be done at the indian port, city of chennai, containers full of cell phones, clothing chips and car parts are waiting to be loaded. but things are quiet here. many ships can set sail. they can't find enough sailors. countries such as singapore, china, and the united arab emirates aren't allowing indian sailors to come ashore for fear of spreading. the delta vary and that means cruise can't be changed out. many shipping companies have fired their indian employees with a lack of alternatives. many of looked for different jobs or have gone into business for themselves, like this shop owner and energetically pandemic hit a sailor is pretty hard and i lost my job as a seaman 14 months ago. during that time, i had no income and it was difficult to find another job. i was turned down again and again. now my situation is improved of the low since i opened this store. nobody over. there are almost 240000 seafarers in india. 15 percent of the world's sailors come from the asian country. shipping companies are eager to employ them. again. they've asked the indian governm