New IT Rules "Prevent Misuse Of Freedom Of Press": Centre To High Court

The Centre has submitted that although the right to freedom of speech and expression, including the freedom of press, is critical for a vibrant democracy like India, citizens "cannot be treated as passive consumers."

The Centre has defended the legality of the new Information Technology (IT) Rules before the Delhi High Court, saying that the rules seek to "prevent the misuse of the freedom of press" and protect the citizens from fake news in digital media space which used to be largely unregulated. The Centre, in its counter affidavit filed on a challenge to the constitutional validity of the new IT Rules, has submitted that although the right to freedom of speech and expression, including the freedom of press, is critical for a vibrant democracy like India, citizens "cannot be treated as passive consumers." While submitting that there have been "past incidents of disinformation on digital media leading to disturbance of public order", the Centre has asserted that digital media "allows sensational content being re-circulated in a different context leading to misinterpretation by the audience", making it susceptible to being used as fake news. "IT Rules seek to prevent the misuse of the freedom of press by empowering the audience with a mechanism to raise their grievances related to the content being published by the digital news publishers through a grievance redressal mechanism with an emphasis on the self-regulatory architecture for digital news publishers, and are therefore not only within the ambit of the Act, but also fulfill the object sought to be achieved by the (IT) Act," said the affidavit recently filed jointly by the Ministry Of Information and Broadcasting and Ministry Of Electronics and Information Technology.