Digital media norms can curb media freedom: Editor’s Guild

The Editors Guild of India (EGI) has urged the Union Government to keep in abeyance the recently notified Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, and conduct meaningful consultation with all stakeholders.

Expressing "deep concern" about the notification of the Rules issued under the Information Technology Act, 2000, the EGI said the new rules fundamentally alter how publishers of news operate over the Internet and have the potential to seriously undermine media freedom in India.

"They empower the Union Government to block, delete, or modify published news anywhere in the country without any judicial oversight and mandate all publishers to establish a grievance redressal mechanism. Various provisions in these rules can place unreasonable restrictions on digital news media, and consequently media at large," the EGI President Seema Mustafa, General Secretary Sanjay Kapoor and Treasurer Anant Nath, said in a joint statement.

"The EGI is concerned that the Government did not consult stakeholders before notifying these far-reaching rules. The government must take note of the fact that in the name of reining in an unfettered social media it cannot overwhelm India’s constitutional safeguards for free media that has been the cornerstone of our democracy", the Guild said