{"id":119696,"date":"2021-07-19T20:10:18","date_gmt":"2021-07-19T14:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=119696"},"modified":"2021-07-20T16:38:43","modified_gmt":"2021-07-20T11:08:43","slug":"towards-freedom-of-expression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/towards-freedom-of-expression\/","title":{"rendered":"Towards freedom of expression"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.business-standard.com\/article\/opinion\/towards-freedom-of-expression-121071800822_1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Business standard<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance<\/strong> &#8211; Laws linked to national security need reconsideration due to their coercive nature.<\/p>\n<h5><b>Synopsis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reviewing the validity of Sedition law should be seen as a starting point for reviewing inhumane provisions of other laws like UAPA and NSA. This would uphold freedom of expression and strengthen constitutional spirit in governance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Background<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Supreme Court agreed to hear a plea challenging the constitutional validity of the sedition law under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A review was long overdue, given the conspicuous misuse of the sedition law by the Central and state governments.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It could mark the start of a belated process to strengthen Indian citizens\u2019 right to freedom of expression that is stifled by many Draconian laws.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Other laws that demand review<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The UAPA, the country\u2019s anti-terror law, is particularly egregious as it requires the accused to prove themselves innocent.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A situation that makes bail a near impossibility, as the appalling treatment of the late Stan Swamy highlighted. Further, it also extends pre-chargesheet custody for 180 days.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many have courageously pointed to the basic flaw in the application of the UAPA in conflating protest with terrorism.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>National Security Act:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is also a variation of colonial-era laws (including the infamous Rowlatt Act). It allows governments to <\/span><b>detain a citizen deemed<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a threat to national security for up to 12 months or longer if the government finds evidence.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This law strips a person of basic rights: To consult a lawyer and to be informed of the reason for her arrest within five days. It gives the government the power to withhold information in the name of national security.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This law has been used to detain people associated with an alleged cow-slaughter case, and a Manipuri journalist for a controversial Facebook post.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Conclusion<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India would benefit if these laws, too, were read down from the statute books. Doing so would help India, which signed a joint statement supporting freedom of expression at the G7 meeting as recently as June 2021, regain something of its tarnished global reputation.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Business standard Relevance &#8211; Laws linked to national security need reconsideration due to their coercive nature. Synopsis: Reviewing the validity of Sedition law should be seen as a starting point for reviewing inhumane provisions of other laws like UAPA and NSA. This would uphold freedom of expression and strengthen constitutional spirit in governance.\u00a0\u00a0 Background:&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/towards-freedom-of-expression\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Towards freedom of expression<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10322,"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":[212,225,8494],"class_list":["post-119696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-polity","tag-towards-freedom-of-expression","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119696","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\/10322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}