oppn parties Fact-Check Unit Notification: Bad In Law, Will Suppress Freedom Of Media

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  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
Stock markets on fire due to US results, Sensex gains 2008 points to reach its highest level in 8 months
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Fact-Check Unit Notification: Bad In Law, Will Suppress Freedom Of Media

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2023-04-08 03:35:21

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

The Editor’s Guild has rightly condemned the government notification on amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules. These amendments have been termed draconian by the Guild as they seek to arm the government with powers to establish a fact-check unit that will flag any news item related to the central government that it considers "fake or false or misleading". The powers and jurisdiction of the fact-check unit are wide, the terms have not been well-defined and it has also not been notified what is the remedy against the unit's decision. This makes the unit all-powerful and once it flags a news item as fake, false or misleading (which terms are open to mischievous interpretations), digital media will have to take it down immediately. This will become a handy tool for the government to suppress unpalatable news (which can always be flagged as 'misleading') and will amount to putting fetters on the media.

The government had come out with the draft rules that were almost similar to the amendments now affected in January this year. At that time, all media organizations had criticized the those rules and had advised the government to consult with media bodies before bringing in the law. But the government has gone ahead with the same rules without having any discussion with media bodies. This is autocratic and an assault on media freedom.

The fact-check unit has been made all-powerful and its word will be the last. There is no defined mechanism to appeal against its decision. This is bad in law. It is also against the principle that a person cannot be the judge in his or her own case. The government alone cannot decide what is published is fake, false and especially misleading as being an interested party, it will likely suppress news that it does not want to come out in public domain. In any case, it always has the right to deny such news and media outlets are duty bound to publish the denial with the same prominence as they published the original news. Even if the government feels the need for a fact-check unit, it has to be broad-based (with representations from media), its powers need to be well defined and there must be a mechanism to appeal against its orders. 

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