Modi govt freezes ads placed in 3 Indian newspaper groups.

• Position: Prime Minister Narendra Modi - Brief article

India's government has cut off advertisements to at least three major newspaper groups in a move that executives and an opposition leader said was likely retaliation for unfavourable reports. Critics have said that freedom of the press has been under attack since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government first took office in 2014 and journalists have complained of intimidation for writing critical stories. Now the big newspaper groups, which have a combined monthly readership of more than 26 million, say they are being starved of government ads worth millions of rupees that began even before Modi was elected to power last month with a landslide mandate.

"There is a freeze," an...