-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Editors Guild of India described I&B minister Manish Tewari's suggestion of licensing journalists as an "undemocratic" practice and a tool of totalitarian states to control the media. "The reporting of facts and the expression of ideas is the right of every citizen and to require the passing of a test and the possession of a licence issued by the government would be a violation of the...

-The Telegraph Has rape become an inspiring act? Protest, debate, anger, mutual blame, marches, mob violence are spilling out of streets and screens, yet the rape count continues to rise relentlessly, almost as if the outrage over one incident is inciting the next one. Such a narrative is to an extent encouraged by the way incidents are reported in newspapers and television, but the facts are inescapable, and everybody, including the...

-The Hindu There has been no public debate on the level of watch citizens can be put through, and on what the red lines should be while using intrusive mechanisms The tussle between government agencies' need for a better, faster and real-time interception, surveillance and monitoring mechanism through the Central Monitoring System (CMS), on the one hand, and demands by privacy, civil rights and free speech activists, for ensuring higher privacy for...

-Reuters India has launched a wide-ranging surveillance programme that will give its security agencies and even income tax officials the ability to tap directly into e-mails and phone calls without oversight by courts or parliament, several sources said. The expanded surveillance in the world's most populous democracy, which the government says will help safeguard national security, has alarmed privacy advocates at a time when allegations of massive US digital snooping beyond American...

-IANS The 2014 general election's outcome in 160 constituencies is likely to be influenced the most by social media users, a study said on Thursday. The study 'Social Media and Lok Sabha Elections', jointly conducted by the RIS Knowledge Foundation and supported by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) said that "there are 160 high impact constituencies out of the total of 543 constituencies, which were likely to be influenced...