oppn parties 'Fake' Test For Credible Journalism

News Snippets

  • Supreme Court dismisses industry bodies' plea to stop the SBI from disclosing the numbers of the electoral bonds
  • NDA finalizes seat sharing in Bihar - BJP 17, JD(U) 16 aqnd LJP 5
  • Election Commission removes Home secretaries of Gujarat, UP, Bihar, HP, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand and the DGP of Bengal
  • Telangana governor Tamilsai Soundararajan resigned from his post and is likely to contest for the BJP from Chennai
  • ED claims K Kavitha of the BRS paid Kejriwal and Sisodia Rs 100cr in the alleged liquor scam in Delhi. AAP says this is a ploy to malign their names
  • Supreme Court tells SBI not to be selective and disclose full details of electoral bonds
  • With the US Department of Justice rpobing bribery charges against Adani group companies, Adani group shares and bonds are under pressure
  • Narayan Murthy gifts Infosys shares worth Rs 240cr to his 4-month-old grandson
  • Tata Sons to sell Rs 9362cr worth shares of TCS to pare debt
  • Stocks were positive on Monday - Sesex climbed 104 points to 72748 and Nifty 32 points to 22055
  • IOA dissolves the ad-hoc panel and gives full control of WFI to elected panel headed by Brij Bhushan aide Sanjay Singh
  • Controversy erupts after BJP leader Tathagata Roy prescribes the cicumcision test for those seeking citizenship under CAA. TMC calls it a 'vulgar jibe'
  • Rahul Gandhi concludes his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Mumbai, holds a mega rally at Shivaji Park and says the BJP does not have the courage to change the Constitution despite making a lot of noise in that regard
  • ED issues two fresh summons to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in the liqour excise case just a day after he got bail in the earlier cases of ignoring the summons
  • A 14-year-old girl killed herself after she was strip-searched at school in Bagalkot in Karnataka
Election Commission orders removal of home secretaries of 6 states and the DGP of Bengal
oppn parties
'Fake' Test For Credible Journalism

By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2023-01-20 10:46:01

About the Author

Sunil Garodia The India Commentary view

Some parts of the draft Information Technology Rules that the government has put in public domain are likely to have an adverse effect on journalism as we know of it. The Rules require that the Press Information Bureau (PIB), a Central government agency, will decide what constitutes 'fake news' and once it decides so for a particular piece of news, it must be taken down. The government has also empowered its departments to authorize any other agency to check facts and declare a piece of news 'fake' if it pertains to any government department. The Editor's Guild of India has said that it will have the effect of gagging the media as it will give the government "a carte blanche to determine what is fake or not with respect to its own work".

If one sees it objectively, the government or its departments are best suited to know whether a piece of news emanating from its departments is genuine or fake. But that is not always the case as any government cherry picks news and dispenses only those items that project it in a good light. But the media has its sources (who often prefer anonymity) who give it inside information that may be critical of the government or its policies or disclose how a particular scheme has flopped. Credible news organizations have many layers of checks and do not publish any news item without solid verification. Over the ages, through self-regulation and standard practices, renowned media organizations have in place a system whereby mistakes are promptly acknowledged by issuing apologies, corrections, presenting the other side of the story or even withdrawing the item completely in some cases. Over and above this, the government has the option of issuing a denial which is published by these media organizations with due prominence. This system has been working well and there is no need to change it.

Fake news has been defined as false or misleading information presented as news. There are many online 'media' outlets that have been publishing such news without any verification. The idea is to sensationalize news to create controversy and grab eyeballs. Most often, these 'media' outlets are of dubious origin and are started with an agenda. There are many ways that the government can prosecute such outlets and it has in fact been doing so. But if the government now puts these Rules into practice for all media organizations, it will kill the freedom of the press and most news will then be published only from the handouts given by the PIB.