Editors Guild issues strong statement against Govt’s new digital media Rules

March 7, 2021
New Delhi: The Editors Guild of India (EGI) on Saturday lent its support to the growing opposition to the new IT rules introduced by the Union government which its crtitics say would deeply undermine media freedom in the country.

In a statement issued here, the EGI, expressed its concern over the recent notification of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which gives the information and broadcasting ministry emergency powers to summarily take down content from digital platforms, including news websites, without giving a hearing to the publisher.

“The rules, issued under the Information Technology Act, 2000, fundamentally alter how publishers of news operate over the internet and have the potential to seriously undermine media freedom in India,” the EGI said.

“They empower the Union government to block, delete, or modify published news anywhere in the country without any judicial oversight and mandate all publishers to establish a grievance redressal mechanism. Various provisions in these rules can place unreasonable restrictions on digital news media, and consequently media at large,” said the statement signed by president Seema Mustafa, general secretray Sanjay Kapoor and treasurer Anant Nath.

”The government must take note of the fact that in the name of reining in an unfettered social media, it cannot overwhelm India’s constitututional safeguards for free media that has been the cornerstone of our democracy,” they said.

–India News Stream

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