1990 - Justice P. N. Bhagwati's speech on Freedom of Expression | Part 1 | अभिव्यक्ति की स्वतंत्रता Audio lecture https://youtu.be/W4aQeprXN9s?t=684
Part II - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpcBuqKQ5dc
Dr. Rajendra Prasad Memorial Lectures - 1990 - Justice P. N. Bhagwati's speech on Freedom of Expression
Prafullachandra Natwarlal Bhagwati was the 17th Chief Justice of India, serving from 12 July 1985 until his retirement on 20 December 1986. He introduced the concepts of public interest litigation and absolute liability in India, and for this reason is held, along with Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer, to be a pioneer of judicial activism in the country.
New IT Rules: How Is The Modi Govt. Working To Censor Digital Media? | Arfa Khanum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs3e6UnCDOg
नए आईटी नियमों के तहत गूगल ने अपनी पहली मासिक पारदर्शिता रिपोर्ट दी है, जिसमें कहा है कि उसे स्थानीय क़ानूनों या व्यक्तिगत अधिकारों के कथित उल्लंघन को लेकर शिकायतें मिलीं, जिसके परिणामस्वरूप 59,350 सामग्रियां प्लेटफॉर्म से हटाई गईं. इस मुद्दे पर द वायर की सीनियर एडिटर आरफ़ा ख़ानम शेरवानी ने चर्चा की हार्ड न्यूज़ के सम्पादक संजय कपूर, सत्य हिंदी के संपादक आशुतोष और वरिष्ठ पत्रकार अनुराधा भसीन से
A Spectre Is Haunting This Government - The Spectre Of Digital News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBKPasAMVtw
Justice (retired) BN Srikrishna, who has chaired a committee of experts on data protection, has told The Indian Express that he is alarmed by the surveillance of phones of Indian human rights activists, lawyers, journalists, and scholars by operatives using a WhatsApp spyware called Pegasus. Asked what the government should do to prevent illegal snooping, Srikrishna said: “Generate strong public opinion against what you see as a clear onslaught on democratic and constitutional rights of citizens.”
Srikrishna was appointed to head the data protection committee on July 31, 2017. The following month, in a landmark decision in the Puttaswamy case, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld right to privacy as a fundamental right under Constitution.
Comment : Unfortunately in 2012, we are seeing this interpreted as the government's right to ask platforms to keep information on originators of posts ( ie asking platforms to do the surveillance for them), through a single point of contact (whom they can influence) without actually setting up a proper law on privacy, or norms and procedures for grievance redressal, as well as transparency and public disclosure of the decisions taken..
FIR In UP Against News Site Over Documentary On Mosque Demolition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRq4IgxRWeU Days after a case was filed against online news platform - 'The Wire' - and several others over tweets linked to the assault of a Muslim man in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad, the state police have filed another case against the news website - this time in Barabanki. In the FIR (first information report) filed over a documentary on the demolition of a mosque in Barabanki, which the authorities describe as an "unauthorised structure", the news website has been accused of "promoting enmity" and holding an "intent to cause riot".
How A Mosque In Barabanki Was Demolished | Ground Report | Seraj Ali https://indianexpress.com/article/india/fir-against-the-wire-3-journalists-for-video-on-barabanki-mosque-demolition-7374688/lite/
Jun 22, 2021 FIR against The Wire, 2 journalists for video on Barabanki mosque demolition By: Express News Service : June 25, 2021
Last month, Barabanki district administration had demolished a mosque located in the Ramsnehi Ghat Tehsil premises. Siddharth Varadarajan, the Founding Editor of The Wire, said: “This is the fourth FIR filed by the UP Police in the past 14 months against The Wire and/or its journalists and each of these cases is baseless. The Adityanath government does not believe in media freedom and is criminalising the work of journalists who are reporting what is happening in the state.”
New IT Rules breach law and gag free speech: 13 key news media firms move Madras HC https://indianexpress.com/article/india/new-it-rules-breach-law-and-gag-free-speech-13-key-news-media-firms-move-madras-hc-7372956/ June 24, 2021
submission that there is “sufficient basis for the petitioners…apprehension that coercive and arm-twisting action may be taken” undersuchprovisions and sought an order seeking restraint of operation of Rules 12, 14 and 16 Rule 16 of the Rules give the Secretary, I&B, emergency powers to block, as an interim measure, public access to any information or a part of it without giving the intermediary hosting the said information any opportunity of hearing. Provision 12 offers options for one or more self-regulatory body of publishers, while 14 says that I&B Ministry shall constitute an inter-departmental committee with representatives from other Ministries.
‘IT rules impose chilling effect on free speech’: TM Krishna moves Madras HC https://indianexpress.com/article/india/right-to-privacy-tm-krishna-it-rules-madras-high-court-centre-7352917/ June 10, 2021
The Madras High Court has given the government three weeks to file a response to the affidavit and the matter will be heard after four weeks.
the petition says the guidelines regarding content around belief, race or religion, will “thwart artists from raising difficult questions against existing aesthetic, gender and caste hierarchies in Karnatic music,” and thwart dissent against existing norms.
“A reading of the Code of Ethics contained in the Impugned Rules makes it impossible to glean what will be considered by the Union government as acceptable speech in the online world. In any event, it is submitted that determining what is acceptable isn’t the sole prerogative of the government,” the petition states.
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