NEW DELHI: Australian journalist Avani Dias on Tuesday said she had to leave India “abruptly” last week after the government allegedly declined to extend her work visa because of her reportage.
Dias, who was the South Asia bureau chief of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, said she left India on April 19, the day the Lok Sabha elections started.
“Last week, I had to leave India abruptly. The Modi Government told me my visa extension would be denied, saying my reporting “crossed a line”. After Australian Government intervention, I got a mere two-month extension …less than 24 hours before my flight,” she said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
The Indian government has not commented on her exit.
The development comes after YouTube India blocked an episode on Dias’ report on the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada at the instance of the Indian government.
In a statement published in a news report on Dias’ exit from India, ABC managing director David Anderson said ABC “fully backs and stands by the important and impactful reporting by Avani Dias during her time as ABC correspondent in India”.
“Avani joins the Four Corners team as a reporter in coming weeks. The ABC believes strongly in the role of independent journalism across the globe, and freedom of the press outside Australia.”
On X, Dias continued. “We were also told my election accreditation would not come through because of an Indian Ministry directive. We left on day one of voting in the national election in what Modi calls “the mother of democracy.”
In a podcast, Dias said it felt really shocking to leave the place that she and her partner had called home for the last two-and-a-half years. “… this place that we loved so much, was not going to be home anymore. We were being forced to leave on the Indian government’s terms.”
