New Delhi: Over a year after she had to leave India facing the threat of expulsion, the Indian government has granted a journalism permit to French journalist Vanessa Dougnac, which it had refused to grant two and half years earlier.
Dougnac, the longest-serving foreign journalist in India, was forced to depart in February 2024 after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) gave her a two-week notice revoking her Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card.
She had applied for a journalism permit in 2022, but her request was rejected.
Her case was raised during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit as the chief guest for India’s 2024 Republic Day celebrations.
In March 2024, she petitioned the Delhi high court, challenging the MHA’s decision and seeking permission to work in India under OCI rules.
Announcing the decision on Thursday (March 27), Dougnac said the Indian government had now allowed her to resume work as a foreign correspondent in New Delhi.
“After two and a half years of being denied permission to undertake journalistic activities, the government of India has authorised me to resume my profession,” she said, adding that the permit was valid for one year.
“I acknowledge and welcome the decision of the Indian authorities and will reflect on my next steps,” she said.
She expressed relief that her professional rights as a journalist had been restored, saying she had always wanted to do her job “with integrity and rigour, in a country I love and respect”.
However, she noted that the suspension of her permit had forced her to abandon her role as a regional correspondent for India and South Asia, uprooting her from what she had built over 25 years in Delhi.
“Under the threat of serious accusations and the possibility of expulsion, I was forced to leave India suddenly in February 2024,” she said.
Reaffirming her connection to India, the veteran journalist described it as a country “to which I owe so much and where I have lived rich and exciting years, both personally and professionally”. “The possibility of returning and practicing my profession in India once again is now an immense relief”.
She also expressed gratitude to those who had supported her, singling out the French embassy in India and her legal team.
After the French side raised her case during Macron’s visit, then-Indian foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra maintained that the actions against her were unrelated to her reporting.
“People are free to do what they are accredited to do in a given space. But here I think the principal issue is whether the person is compliant with the rules and regulations of the state under which they come,” he said at a media briefing on January 26.
He also claimed that France had “appreciated” India’s approach of viewing the case purely through the lens of rule compliance.
Dougnac, however, had said the MHA notice on her OCI card accused her articles of being “malicious” and harming “the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India”.
It had also demanded that she explain why her OCI status should not be revoked, claiming that her writing could “provoke disorder and disturb peace”.
The Asia Program of the international journalism advocacy group, the Committee to Protect Journalists, welcomed “the Indian government’s decision to reinstate journalist Vanessa Dougnac’s work permit, a step towards supporting press freedom”.
