Free Press was a short-lived but well-attempted and widely-circulated magazine in Malayalam language published between 2003 and 2006. Funded itself on readers' contribution, Free Press, exhibited the idealism of a group of twenty young journalists, who came together to publish an investigative, non-partisan monthly in Malayalam published from Delhi, targeting the Malayalis in Kerala and the Malayali diaspora in other Indian states and abroad. It was founded by Vinod Jose, while working as a foreign correspondent in South Asia for the US based Pacifica Radio. Free Press was a registered magazine with the Registrar of Newspapers in India (RNI) and sold 55,000 copies every month. Without spending any money on advertisement, Free Press gained the circulation through word-of-mouth campaign and conducting smaller events in Kerala.
Free Press investigations included: Reliance corporation and its contribution to India's black economy, fake-encounter epidemic by Delhi Police, Intel meddling with the school curriculum in Kerala, industrialists "buying" rivers in Kerala, sex scandal of a Muslim League minister in Kerala. And the result was quick. Its office was raided. Editor was interrogated[1] Reporters were harassed. Distribution system was destroyed. Printing presses in Delhi were forced to back off. Free Press in 2005 was forced out of newsstands.
In May 2006, Vinod K. Jose, Editor-in-Chief; V.H. Nishad, Literary Editor; Shaijith V.M., Principal Correspondent declared in a public announcement that the magazine could not sustain itself anymore and declared its closure. At 23, when he started Free Press, Vinod K. Jose became one of the youngest Editor-in-Chiefs of any current affairs registered magazine in India. Free Press was the first publication to have initiated the concept of citizen journalism in Kerala.