French journalist Sebastien Farcis announced on Thursday his departure from India after more than 13 years, following the Ministry of Home Affairs' (MHA) refusal to renew his work permit.
Farcis is the third foreign journalist reportedly forced to leave the country this year, amid recurring allegations that the Modi government is stifling press freedom. He left India earlier this week, having been informed in March that his routine journalist permit extension was denied.
Farcis, who had served as the South Asia correspondent for Radio France Internationale and other prominent French-language and Swiss and Belgian public radio outlets, described the decision as an act of "incomprehensible censorship."
"After 13 years working as a correspondent in India, the authorities have denied me a permit to work as a journalist. I have thus been forced to leave the country," he wrote on 'X'.
"On June 17, I was forced to leave India, a country where I had lived and worked as a journalist for 13 years, as a South Asia correspondent for Radio France Internationale, Radio France, Liberation and the Swiss and Belgian public radios," Farcis said in a post on 'X' on Thursday.
Farcis said he had been working in India as a journalist since 2011 and had obtained all the necessary visas and accreditations. "I have...never worked in restricted or protected areas without a permit. On several occasions, the MHA even granted me permits to report from border areas," he said in a statement posted on X.
"It was communicated to me on the eve of the Indian general elections, the largest democratic elections in the world, which I was hence forbidden to cover. This appeared to me as an incomprehensible censorship," he wrote.
Farcis said that no reason had been provided "despite formal and repeated requests" and that he had applied for a new work permit.
Without "work nor income, my family has been pushed out of India without explanation," he said.
Farcis is married to an Indian national and has Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status, which allows him to live and work in the country but requires a special permit for missionary activities, mountaineering or journalism.
This is not the first time this year that a journalist from a foreign media outlet has been ordered to leave the country.
In February, French journalist Vanessa Dougnac left the country after the government revoked her Overseas Citizen of India card. Dougnac, a contributor to several French-language publications, including the weekly magazine Le Point, had worked in India for 23 years.
Vanessa revealed that the Ministry of Home Affairs sent her a notice in January, stating her work was "inimical" to national interests, leading to the cancellation of her permanent residency.
Two months later, Avani Dias, who was the South Asia Bureau Chief of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), said she had been forced to leave India on April 19, the day the Lok Sabha elections started, after the government objected to her reporting on the assassination of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
The ABC had said Dias was informed of the decision by an official from the Ministry of External Affairs, who said her most recent Foreign Correspondent episode on Nijjar "crossed a line."