Media Under Attack: India’s New Data Protection Law

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP Act) 2023 will have a chilling impact on the freedom of the press and people’s right to information. The excessive powers vested in the Union government and the failure to exempt collection and processing of personal data for journalistic purposes from the ambit of the Act poses a serious threat to independent journalism.

The requirement of seeking consent for publishing personal information, and penalties up to Rs 250 crore or even Rs 500 crore for violation of the Act will severely curtail press freedom. It would effectively prevent journalists from exposing names of politicians, government officials and industrialists involved in corruption scams, criminal cases or human rights abuses. Journalist bodies including the Editor’s Guild of India and Press Club of India fear this law could end exposed corruption and silence whistleblowers, fundamentally altering India's media landscape. The DPDP Act also drastically weakens the Right to Information Act by exempting all personal information from disclosure. Understand the hidden dangers in the DPDP law for public interest journalism and the future of transparency.

Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty, journalist and vice-president of the Press Club of India, Apar Gupta, lawyer and director of the Internet Freedom Foundation and investigative journalist Nitin Sethi of The Reporter’s Collective join Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri on this edition of Jaanne Bhi Do Yaaro.

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