The state of free speech is fraught in India, with a massive misuse of laws producing a “chilling effect” on the media, N. Ram, Chairman and Publisher of The Hindu group of publications, said in Galle on Friday.

Speaking on ‘free speech deficits’ at the Galle Literary Festival, he said that the country had shifted from being in an enviable position earlier in regard to freedom of expression to a situation where journalists and intellectuals felt demoralised and isolated. Mr. Ram said that the illiberal and unreasonable interpretation of constitutional provisions and laws, the presence of some laws in the statute books — notably, criminal defamation — and the visible increase in intolerance in society and polity, accompanied by the rise of majoritarian communalism and ultra-nationalism, were reasons for the fraught state of free speech.