Due to arrive in India on Thursday, January 25, for a two-day visit, Emmanuel Macron has a problematic case on his hands: For the first time, India has been threatening to expel a French journalist who has been based in New Delhi since 2001. The correspondent for French newspaper La Croix and magazine Le Point Vanessa Dougnac, one of the leading experts on the region, received a formal notice from the Indian authorities on January 18. The notice requested her to surrender her residence permit, an Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card, which is a special status in the form of a permanent visa granted to foreigners with an Indian spouse. She has until February 2 to respond.

The journalist has been in the government's sights for over a year and a half. In September 2022, she was stripped of her right to practice her profession, a sanction that was never justified. Despite repeated efforts by the French embassy in India and the involvement of the Elysée's diplomatic advisors, her case has not improved – quite the opposite.

The formal notice served by the interior ministry's visa department accused her of having broken rules, and of having "undertaking journalistic activities without any special permission": Charges which Dougnac has categorically denied. Over the past year, she has stopped covering news in India, which has cost her most of her income. The only articles she has written have covered the other countries in her remit: Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.

In the same notice, the authorities also referred to some extremely serious but opaque accusations, of the sort usually made against political opponents and independent Indian journalists. It mentions reporting that is "malicious" and "critical in manner that they create biased negative perception about India" in articles likely to "provoke disorder and disturb public order in certain sections of the society."

During the 2010s, Dougnac produced documentaries and in-depth reports on the Naxalites, Maoist rebels who are considered by the Indian government to be "enemies of the state." She had never received any kind of admonition from the authorities. India is "a country which I deeply love and respect, and I have never engaged in any acts that are in any manner prejudicial to Indian interests as is being alleged," the journalist said in a statement.

The Indian information and interior ministries, when contacted by Le Monde, have so far given no details of the specific charges against Dougnac.

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