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Journalism of Courage
THE DELHI High Court on Tuesday will hear a petition challenging the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The case is listed before the division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh.
The petition has been filed by The Foundation for Independent Journalism, which publishes news website The Wire. This is the first legal challenge to the rules.
The guidelines for intermediaries and news portals were notified last week by the Centre for regulating the content on these platforms.
“While rules and laws already exist to hold news media accountable, the aforesaid rules enable the executive government to even remove content published as current affairs or news among other things,” the Foundation said in a letter written to the Ministers for Information and Broadcasting and Electronics and Information Technology.
DIGIPUB News India Foundation, a group of digital media organisations, on February 26, expressed concerns about the rules and said they appear to go against the fundamental principle of news. The Wire is a member of the DIGIPUB News India Foundation. Editors Guild of India also has urged the government to put the rules in abeyance and conduct meaningful consultation with all stakeholders.
