Media groups challenge India’s privacy law at top court

News organisations are challenging the law, arguing it could hamper investigative journalism and endanger sources.

Members of media speak in front of cameras outside the Supreme Court in New Delhi [File: Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters]

The Indian government’s privacy law, which would require journalists to seek consent from people they write about, amounts to pre-censorship and could lead to newsrooms shutting down, media groups have told the Supreme Court.

A group of 21 news publishers, including companies owned by billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s law on Tuesday, arguing it would trample upon investigative work and allow the government to identify journalists’ sources, according to The Indian Express newspaper.

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“It is changing the whole concept of what is news,” Madhavi Goradia Divan, the lawyer for the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA), told judges.

“Newsrooms will shut down, if we have to ask for permission … it’s then a complete regime of pre-censorship.”

The Supreme Court said it would hear the case next month.

Media companies received assurances in an August meeting with the government that the law would protect press freedom, but not having a written exemption for journalists as in the European Union, Singapore and Britain was alarming, the news publishers said in a filing earlier this month.

The DNPA’s members include Ambani’s Network18, which has seven digital news platforms, Adani’s NDTV and other high-profile media groups including the Indian Express and Times Internet, which is part of the Times of India group, publisher of India’s largest-selling English-language daily.

Fear of putting sources at risk

A key concern in the law is the requirement of consent, says the group’s filing, cited by the Reuters news agency.

A social media platform or online retailer can seek consent from users when they sign up, but the DNPA has argued that requiring a journalist to notify the subject of an investigation and seek consent “would allow that subject to destroy evidence, intimidate witnesses”.

The law also lets people withdraw consent at any time and demand that their data be erased, without any public-interest safeguard, which the DNPA says could force its members to unpublish or heavily redact a factual news report.

News publishers are concerned that a federal authority created under the law can impose fines for noncompliance, and grants powers to New Delhi to block access to any information in the “interests of the general public”, which would curtail press freedom, the DNPA said.

From next year, the law will also let New Delhi order any organisation handling personal data “to furnish such information as it may call for”, putting newsrooms at risk of having to divulge sources, the filing said.

It can also deter whistleblowers from sharing information on corruption, corporate wrongdoing or electoral malpractice with reporters, the DNPA argued.

The “nakedly unguided” provision must be quashed, the DNPA said, adding that the power “can extend to privileged communications in possession of a reporter or the informant.”

新闻机构对该法律提出质疑，认为该法律可能会阻碍调查性新闻报道并危及消息来源。

媒体成员在新德里最高法院外对着镜头发表讲话。[图片：Anushree Fadnavis/路透社]

媒体团体向最高法院表示，印度政府的隐私法要求记者在报道中必须征得被报道人的同意，这相当于预先审查，并可能导致新闻编辑室关闭。

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“这正在改变新闻的整个概念，”数字新闻出版商协会 (DNPA) 的律师 Madhavi Goradia Divan 告诉法官。

“如果发布新闻还需要申请许可，新闻编辑室就会关闭……那将是一种彻底的预先审查制度。”

最高法院表示将于下个月审理此案。

新闻出版商在本月初提交的一份文件中表示，媒体公司在 8 月份与政府的一次会议上得到了保证，该法律将保护新闻自由，但与欧盟、新加坡和英国不同，该法律没有为记者提供书面豁免，这令人担忧。

DNPA 的成员包括安巴尼旗下的 Network18（拥有七个数字新闻平台）、阿达尼旗下的 NDTV 以及其他知名媒体集团，例如《印度快报》和 Times Internet（隶属于印度时报集团，该集团出版印度销量最大的英文日报）。

担心危及消息来源

路透社援引该组织提交的文件称，法律中的一个关键问题是需要获得同意。

社交媒体平台或在线零售商可以在用户注册时征求其同意，但DNPA认为，要求记者通知调查对象并征求其同意“将允许该对象销毁证据、恐吓证人”。

该法律还允许人们随时撤回同意，并要求删除他们的数据，没有任何公共利益保障措施，DNPA 表示，这可能会迫使其成员撤回或大幅删减事实新闻报道。

新闻出版商担心，根据该法律设立的联邦机构可以对不遵守规定的行为处以罚款，并赋予新德里权力以“公共利益”为由阻止获取任何信息，这将限制新闻自由，DNPA表示。

文件称，从明年起，该法律还将允许新德里命令任何处理个人数据的组织“提供其可能要求的任何信息”，这将使新闻编辑室面临被迫泄露消息来源的风险。

DNPA认为，这也会阻止举报人向记者透露有关腐败、企业不当行为或选举舞弊的信息。

国家警察总署表示，必须废除“毫无指导意义”的条款，并补充说，该权力“可以延伸到记者或线人掌握的特权通信”。