In 2025, much like the years before it, South First worked hard to ensure that people’s voices, including those of the marginalised and religious and ethnic minorities, were heard.
Published Dec 31, 2025 | 9:00 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 31, 2025 | 9:00 PM
Kerala’s attempts at anti-black magic legislation date back nearly a decade.
Journalism does justice to the people only when they are adequately represented — when their hardships and struggles are laid bare before the world.
In 2025, much like the years before it, South First worked hard to ensure that people’s voices, including those of the marginalised and religious and ethnic minorities, were heard.
Here is a look at some of our best exclusive stories that made a difference.
In October 2025, the death sentence of Nimisha Priya, a Malayali nurse, was stayed by a Yemeni court after negotiations. She was arrested at the Yemen-Saudi Arabia border in August 2017, after she had killed a Yemeni national in a claimed bid to sedate him and retrieve her passport from his possession. After her arrest, she was tried and sentenced to death in 2018. Her mother, Prema Kumari, left for Yemen in mid-2024 and stayed there, in a prison she had created for herself in an alien land, for over a year, till the death sentence of her daughter was stayed.
Kuttampuzha, a village surrounded by thick forests and brimming with wildlife, is part of the Ernakulam district in Kerala and is home to a significant tribal population, including the Mannan, Muthuvan, Ulladan, Malayarayan, Malayan, and Urali communities. Mainstream media has labelled Kuttampuzha a “ghost village,” claiming a mass exodus of residents driven by fear of wild animal attacks. However, this name has brought fear and confusion, damaging the lives of the people who live here. With this beautiful village earning this haunting title, the constant media glare turned the lives of the residents upside down.
In August 2025, private universities and journalism schools in Bengaluru quietly organised “cultural exchange programmes” in which students are sent to Israel in a tie-up with the Israeli Consulate, even as Israel’s offensive on Palestine’s Gaza continued. Two students each from the National School of Journalism and St Joseph’s College were selected for the August-end visit, with participants told the trip would offer exposure to Israel’s “cultural history” and a “balanced picture” in response to the “bad press”.
Kerala’s forest department has lost 37 personnel since 1969 in their dangerous mission to manage escalating human-wildlife conflicts, with elephant attacks claiming the highest toll of 13 lives. The forest guards, who work for daily wages as low as ₹970 and often face delayed payments, routinely risk their lives to drive wild animals back from human settlements without adequate protection or risk allowances.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of over one lakh fraudulent voters in Mahadevapura of Bangalore Central Lok Sabha Constituency highlighted persistent issues in Bengaluru’s electoral rolls since 2012. Duplicate IDs, deleted voters, and unaddressed complaints from activists and RWAs plague the system. Concerned citizens, activists, Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) and non-profit institutions have been filing complaints, petitions, and even sending e-mails to the State Election Commission, Central Election Commission and Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka, to bring such issues to their notice. Many of them weren’t addressed.
Social media personalities praising governments, a scheme, or a political party has become frequent. Multiple social media handles sharing the same message, too, have become common, earning the sobriquet of copy-paste brigade. What began as a brand-promotion tool has evolved into a major communication channel — one that political actors have quickly learned to exploit. According to analysts, among all types of influencers, the apolitical influencers are the most dangerous as their political marketing gimmicks could lead to real-world consequences.
Despite the ruling DMK’s efforts to curb the rise in crimes against women in Tamil Nadu and offer protections to survivors of sexual violence and gender-based abuse through a progressive amendment earlier this year, the ground reality has fallen far short of the law’s ideals. The police’s handling of two recent harassment cases involving different women suggests that legislation alone, without proper training and sensitisation of officers, will lead to no meaningful change on the ground.
Kerala has a hard-earned reputation for stellar maternal and infant health indicators, but it has been facing an unsettling challenge due to planned home births. It continues unabated, with the state health department seemingly chasing shadows. Beneath the surface lies a complex, unsettling reality: a shadowy nexus preying on mostly vulnerable families, peddling unfounded religious beliefs, stoking nosocomephobia (fear of hospitals), and convincing women to shun institutional deliveries.
Bitra — often hailed as the ‘Jewel of Lakshadweep’ — is a glistening speck in the vast Arabian Sea, rich in ecological charm and marine wealth. With just 0.105 sq km of land, Bitra is the smallest inhabited island in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep. The Lakshadweep Administration is aggressively moving towards a takeover of Bitra, citing national security concerns, raising alarms among environmentalists and islanders alike. As the fate of this fragile ecosystem hangs in the balance, questions loom large: Will the country’s northernmost coral haven be preserved — or compromised in the name of strategy?
Kerala is still shadow-boxing when it comes to confronting the dark world of superstition and occult exploitation. Alleged black magic rituals continue to inflict physical and psychological abuse, fuel fraud and at times claim lives. The LDF government in Kerala has been promising an anti-black magic law for a long time, but it has not become a reality. In November 2025, the state government appointed yet another expert committee to prepare a fresh draft Bill, reviving old questions about its political will to tackle the issue.
