The Supreme Court has taken steps to lay down a code for media reporting. This attempt at prior restraint on the media is a dangerous move with precedent from authoritarian polities. In a context where the judiciary has been lax in defending the media from attacks which seek to curb its freedom, such unilateral moves will not remedy bad reporting but rather make conditions worse for the media to play...
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Practise what you preach-Pranesh Prakash
The only way to fix the IT laws is to change the way they are made Laws in India relating to the internet are greatly flawed. The only way to fix them would be to fix the way they are made. The Cyber-Laws and E-Security Group in the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEIT, ‘DeitY’ according to their website) has proved incapable of making balanced, informed laws and policies. The...
More »Fresh fire at social networks
-The Telegraph The Press Council chairman today joined the chorus for a leash on the social media, citing how a sleaze video featuring Congress MP Abhishek Singhvi had been uploaded on YouTube despite a court injunction. Former Supreme Court judge Markandey katju wrote to I&B minister Ambika Soni to raise a team of legal and technical experts to check “this menace” and, if necessary, frame a law to filter out “offensive material”. Union...
More »Don't shoot the messenger
-The Hindu The outcome of the Press Council of India's decision to challenge the Allahabad High Court gag order on reporting the movement of troops will be an acid test of how far the judiciary can go in curbing media freedoms. The court's order — which directed senior officials in the Home and I&B departments of the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government to ensure that no news on the subject...
More »Press Council dismisses complaint against TOI
-The Times of India The Press Council of India, headed by retired Supreme Court judge, Markandey katju, has dismissed a complaint filed against The Times of India by a senior Haryana IPS officer, Anil Dawra, who is presently posted as state ADGP (training). The TOI on January 28, 2010 had published a story "IG let off easily in Sarita case," on the basis of an RTI query. Sarita was allegedly raped by...
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