{"id":118107,"date":"2021-07-12T20:48:21","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T15:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=118107"},"modified":"2021-07-13T10:25:16","modified_gmt":"2021-07-13T04:55:16","slug":"courts-protect-media-it-rules-attack-medias-core-freedom-judges-should-see-legal-challenges-to-rules-in-that-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/courts-protect-media-it-rules-attack-medias-core-freedom-judges-should-see-legal-challenges-to-rules-in-that-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Courts, protect media: IT rules attack media\u2019s core freedom. Judges should see legal challenges to rules in that light"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Source<\/b>:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/blogs\/toi-editorials\/courts-protect-media-it-rules-attack-medias-core-freedom-judges-should-see-legal-challenges-to-rules-in-that-light\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Times of India<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance<\/strong>: New IT rules are aimed at regulating media and address the Challenges to internal security.<\/p>\n<p><b>Synopsis<\/b>: New IT rules that apply indiscriminately to all digital content are facing a slew of legal challenges from news agencies.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>News agencies and the IT Rules:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Recently, in a petition brought by the National Broadcasters Association, the Kerala HC shielded broadcasters from coercive action. The Digital News Publishers Association has also challenged the constitutionality of these rules in the Madras HC. This is due to the following reasons,<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Digital news and current affairs publishers are correctly questioning why the news <strong>media is treated on a par with social media and OTT platforms<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Further, there was <strong>no consultation with the news media before these rules were made<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>These rules will <strong>bring in surveillance of news outlets and fear of government diktats<\/strong>. That\u2019s unacceptable and <strong>anti-democratic<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr style=\"background-color: #e3baba;\">\n<td style=\"width: 100%;\">Read More: <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/new-it-rules-for-social-media-and-its-challenges\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New IT Rules for Social Media and its challenges \u2013 Explained, Pointwise<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h5><strong>Why including news agencies under IT rules is unnecessary?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Unlike social media platforms, the <strong>news is already regulated<\/strong> by the Press Council, the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act and the National Broadcasting Standards Authority. Therefore, <strong>additional rules were unnecessary<\/strong> in the first place.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>IT Act<\/strong>, which deals with digital intermediaries, <strong>does not even apply to news publishers<\/strong>. Nor does it deal with any content regulation except in cases of cyberterrorism, sexually explicit and obscene material, child pornography. Therefore, IT rules, as subordinate legislation, cannot roam widely beyond the scope of the parent act.<\/li>\n<li>The rules seem like an attempt to intimidate the news media into self-censorship, apart from vesting government with overreaching powers over news content.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the past, the SC has strongly protected media rights with its interpretation of Article 19(a) as part of the fundamental right to free speech and expression.\u00a0All courts must demonstrate a robust commitment to media independence.<\/p>\n<div class=\"content-box-green\">\n<h5><strong>Terms to know:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/new-it-rules-for-social-media-and-ott-platforms-explained-pointwise\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/cable-television-networks-regulation-act\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"TextRun BCX0 SCXW2774318\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"none\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun BCX0 SCXW2774318\">Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/news-broadcasting-standards-authority\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"TextRun BCX0 SCXW2774318\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"none\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun BCX0 SCXW2774318\"> National Broadcasting Standards Authority<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/what-is-press-council-of-india-pci\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"TextRun BCX0 SCXW2774318\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"none\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun BCX0 SCXW2774318\">Press Council of India<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source:\u00a0Times of India Relevance: New IT rules are aimed at regulating media and address the Challenges to internal security. Synopsis: New IT rules that apply indiscriminately to all digital content are facing a slew of legal challenges from news agencies. News agencies and the IT Rules: Recently, in a petition brought by the National Broadcasters&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/courts-protect-media-it-rules-attack-medias-core-freedom-judges-should-see-legal-challenges-to-rules-in-that-light\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Courts, protect media: IT rules attack media\u2019s core freedom. Judges should see legal challenges to rules in that light<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704937004},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118107\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}