Human Rights Defenders Data Information Knowledge Solidarity

A new phase of censorship creep in India N. RAM   Feb 03, 2023 https://frontline.thehindu.com/columns/guest-column-media-n-ram-a-new-phase-of-censorship-creep-in-india-it-rules-2021-ban-bbc-documentary/article66463846.ece

Under the proposed amendment  to the IT Rules 2021, there will be a new category of takedown of social media content and news media content. The target will be any information “identified as fake or false” by the new enforcers—“the fact check unit at the Press Information Bureau of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting or other agency authorised by the Central Government for fact checking, or, in respect of any business of the Central Government, by its department in which such business is transacted under the rules of business made under clause (3) of article 77 of the Constitution.”

A new low for media freedom in India N. RAM Published : Nov 14, 2022 https://frontline.thehindu.com/columns/a-new-low-for-media-freedom-in-india/article66124487.ece The military-style “search and seize” raid conducted on October 31, 2022 by the Crime Branch of the Delhi police at the offices of The Wire and the homes of its three founding editors, Siddharth Varadarajan, M.K.Venu, and Sidharth Bhatia, deputy editor Jahnavi Sen, and product-and-business head Mithun Kidambi marks a new low for media freedom in India.

The police seized various devices and the hard disks of two computers used by the accounts staff under cover of investigating a criminal case. This case is based on a complaint made by Amit Malviya, a BJP leader who heads the ruling party’s national Information Technology department, that the three Meta stories published earlier in October by The Wire were a conspiracy to harm his reputation through forgery. The Wire placed on record its demand for the hash value—a unique numerical value used to ensure the integrity of a device and its data—of the mobile phones, iPads, computers, and hard disks seized and for cloned copies of the devices and hard disks seized to be kept at a neutral place. But this reasonable and lawful demand was simply ignored.

‘Thank you for making me feel less alone’: Journalist Rana Ayyub after winning press freedom award  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsPgZ4jL0rA  Dec 9 , 2022
‘I can’t tell you how isolating it is, to be living in my own country like a criminal,’ Ayyub said on receiving the John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award.

Is it surprising that the Indian media ignored the first major public statement by Amitabh Bachchan on the current state of the country, after years of silence, and that too on an international platform?

https://thewire.in/film/amitabh-bachchan-kiff-freedom-of-expression-civil-liberties 

In his speech, Bachchan did a historical survey of Indian cinema. But the remarkable thing was that the context of the survey was freedom of expression. Or censorship. Looking at the journey of Indian cinema from the point of censorship, the actor said that even today, “questions are being raised on civil liberties and freedom”.

For a person of Bachchan’s stature to flag the issues of ‘civil liberty’ and ‘freedom’ and go unheard is extraordinary. The media ensured that his voice did not reach the people. He was talking about censorship and he was literally censored by the media. That tells you a lot about what the mainstream media wants people to hear and what it keeps from them.

by Apoorvanand

22/12/2022

read more