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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Media Coverage of the Right to Information (Amendment) Act 2019 in India -Ashish Singh

Media Coverage of the Right to Information (Amendment) Act 2019 in India -Ashish Singh

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published Published on Mar 18, 2022   modified Modified on Mar 19, 2022

-Countercurrents.org

The Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2019 was passed by both the houses of parliament in July 2019. The opposition parties had been arguing against the proposed changes in the Right to Information Act of 2005 through this amendment. The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act, 2005) came in existence after a long movement against transparency and accountability in governance. It enabled all citizens of India the right to access information from public authorities. The Right to Information Act, 2005 was enacted with the aim to “provide for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities, in order to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority, the constitution of a Central Information Commission and State Information Commissions and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.” (Ministry of Law and Justice, 2005)

The Act provided for a Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and Information Commissioners (ICs) at the centre and state levels, who would hold office for a term of five years. Furthermore, the salaries of Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners (at the centre level) would be equivalent to the salaries paid to the Chief Election Commissioner and Information Commissioners respectively (Sinha, 2019).  Similarly, the salaries of CICs and ICs at the state level would be similar to that of the Election Commissioners and the Chief Secretary to the state government, respectively. (Ibid) The Act also provided that at the time of appointment if the CICs and ICs are receiving pension or any other retirement benefits for previous government service, their salaries will be reduced by an amount equal to the pension. (Ibid)

The Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2019, changed the provisions related to the term of office stating that the central government will notify the term of office for the CIC and ICs.  It changed the provisions of the RTI Act, 2005 related to salaries and allowances with that salaries, allowances, and other terms and conditions of service of the central and state CIC and ICs will be determined by the central government. The provisions related to deduction of salaries have been removed by this act.

Given the background, this review seeks to answer how the new Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2019 was covered in the mainstream Indian media? The review uses English mainstream newspapers such as Times of India, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, The Pioneer, News18, The Indian Express and The Wire to present its findings.

Newspapers (The Hindu 2019a, The Wire 2019a, The Hindu 2019b) reported the introduction of the bill in the Lok Sabha saying that this bill seeks to hand over the control over the salaries and tenures of information commissioners to the Union government, and that in essence the draft bill was basically the “RTI elimination bill” which would act as a threat to the independence of the Central Information Commission (The Hindu 2019b, The Wire 2019b). Newspapers also published detailed pieces explaining provisions of the amendment act and why there has been an opposition to such amendments (Times of India 2019a, Times of India 2019b, News18 2019a),

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Countercurrents.org, 18 March, 2022, https://countercurrents.org/2022/03/media-coverage-of-the-right-to-information-amendment-act-2019/?fbclid=IwAR3vncNMA51Iue4tunzyWyvUMNytHQJN7pm7okYTPnlm9ghAvvjFRIvzaEw


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