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India Diversity on the Brink 40 IFJ PRESS FREEDOM REPORT 2018–2019 INDIA DIVERSITY ON THE BRINK olitics is always first on the order of business of the Indian offence over social media is detected. press, the calendar in a complex, federal polity being Responding to an urgent call from the ECI on March 19, packed with electoral contests at some level or the other. social media platforms and internet services instituted a claimed Five keenly contested elections to state legislative stringent audit of content. According to its public affairs head for assemblies in the latter half of 2018 were a prelude to South Asia, Facebook appointed seven fact-checkers specifically the seven-stage poll by which India will elect its 17th tasked with monitoring election related content in India. PLok Sabha, or lower house of parliament, by May 23, 2019. But However, the process is for Facebook to refer specific stories the polling process in the world’s largest democracy took place which are flagged by users to the fact-checking process. against a backdrop of serious allegations of bias in the Indian The three-page code drafted by social media platforms media and the growing problem of fake news. Until recently, and internet services gives a commitment to keep a channel the main challenge that election oversight bodies faced was open to the ECI on all matters of priority, submit featured identified as ‘paid news’, or candidates obtaining favourable political advertising to certification by an empowered body, media coverage in exchange for cash. But fake news and online and ensure the transparency of promotional material using abuse, propelled by social media, have been game-changers. relevant “disclosure technology”. Participants to the code have pleaded for recognition of their special status as neither “authors nor publishers”. The Ministry of Electronics and FACTS, FICTION AND PROPAGANDA Information Technology (MeitY) initiated public consultations In notifying the country’s polling schedule, the Election on “intermediary liability”. Section 79 of India’s Information Commission of India (ECI) made special mention of the menace Technology Act (ITA) already specifies that an “intermediary” – a of fake news and hate speech. Social media campaigns, which telecom service or social media platform – could be held liable for could previously evade ECI scrutiny, must now be disclosed content. Exemptions are granted where it does not “initiate the by every candidate. The ECI has also put in place an app that transmission, select the receiver of the transmission, (or) select or enables any private individual to record a complaint where an modify the information contained in the transmission”. 41 THE POLLING PROCESS IN THE WORLD’S LARGEST DEMOCRACY TOOK PLACE WITH A BACKDROP OF SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS OF BIAS IN THE INDIAN MEDIA. working journalists, editors and owners of the news media in clear violation of stipulated guidelines was termed as “veiled censorship”. The IJU also protested against the decision of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting to appoint a committee consisting largely of government officials and a few organizations to recommend a regulatory framework for online media. HYPER-NATIONALISM REIGNS Nationalism was a key issue for the period under review. In particular, TV news was found lending its voice to feverish public frenzy after a terror strike in Pulwama district in the state of Jammu and Kashmir on February 14. Neighbouring Pakistan was reflexively blamed and within days, a raid carried out by Indian Air Force combat jets deep within the territory of the neighbouring state, became the occasion for perfervid celebrations on the TV news channels. Pakistan retaliated within a day. Though full details remain unclear, India lost a helicopter on home ground, while one fighter jet was shot down over hostile territory. A combat pilot was taken captive by Pakistan, though this did not seem to dampen the mood of triumphalism on Indian news channels. There was little hint of sobriety or restraint when Pakistan announced within a day of his capture, that the Indian combat pilot would be returned home. The unrelenting media hysteria seemingly gave Pakistan pause. It finally delayed the release of the pilot, till after he was recorded reading out a prepared script, praising the professionalism of the Pakistan army and sharply TV news in particular was found lending its voice to feverish public attacking the Indian media for adding “unnecessary fire and frenzy after a terror strike in Puwama district in the state of Jammu and chilli to its words”. Contrary to the Geneva Conventions norm, Kashmir. India and Pakistan’s troubled ties risked taking a dangerous that captured enemy combatants will not be put on unseemly new turn on February 15 as New Delhi accused Islamabad of harbouring and humiliating public display, the recording was broadcast over militants behind one of the deadliest attacks in three decades of bloodshed in India-administered Kashmir. CREDIT: ARUN SANKAR / AFP Pakistan national TV and eagerly picked up by the Indian media, which had no other source for documenting those moments prior to the pilot’s release. In November 2018, a survey by the BBC World Service revealed But intermediaries are also obliged to respond when that “nationalism” was a major driver of fake news. It found that notified about content that could potentially lead to unlawful “facts were less important to some than the emotional desire conduct. The MeitY’s proposal now imposes a “due diligence” to bolster national identity” and “suggested that right-wing responsibility for offences that are defined by a broad list of networks (were) much more organised than on the left, pushing circumstances that have no mention in Article 19. Any violation nationalistic fake stories further”. of terms of use could lead to termination of services. They can The disturbing pattern of online trolling, including physical also be compelled by “lawful order” to provide information to threats against journalists seen to be critical of the government’s any designated “government agency”. approaches on security and other policy issues continued, often Telecom companies and social media platforms have attacked in severely aggravated form. the proposals as excessive and inherently prone to abuse. Civil Though a pattern going back many years, especially where society groups have decried the violation of the spirit of the female journalists are involved, the aftermath of the Pulwama Supreme Court ruling in the Shreya Singhal matter striking down terror attack saw a particularly nasty surge of threats against the over-broad Section 66 of the IT Act. independent media practitioners. This period also saw a spike in Government intervention in regulatory bodies came in for unverified information circulated on social media being amplified sharp criticism in the period too. in mainstream media, testing the credibility of the mainstream Journalists’ bodies strongly resisted attempts by the government media and putting at risk the back-bone of the media industry – to control autonomous institutions such as the Press Council of journalists and media staff. India by reconstituting them with hand-picked members. The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) also criticized the manner in which the Central Press Accreditation Committee (CPAC), RISKING LIFE AND LIMB which grants accreditation to representatives of various news The precarious situation for India’s journalists remains a key media organizations, was reconstituted. The reconstitution concern for journalists and the organizations that represent of the body without the representatives of organizations of them. The cold-blooded murder of editor-in-chief of daily Rising 42 IFJ PRESS FREEDOM REPORT 2018–2019 An Indian citizen of Masaladanga enclave shows his ink-marked finger after casting his vote at a polling station in Cooch Behar district on April 11, 2019, during the first phase of general election in West Bengal. India’s mammoth six-week general election kicked off April 11, with polling stations in the country’s northeast among the first to open. CREDIT: DIPTENDU DUTTA / AFP IN NOTIFYING THE COUNTRY’S POLLING SCHEDULE, THE ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA (ECI) MADE SPECIAL MENTION OF THE MENACE OF FAKE NEWS AND HATE SPEECH. Kashmir, Shujaat Bukhari, rattled Kashmir’s media community The action was to fight against what is described as and drew massive outrage, nationally and globally. Around ‘undemocratic attacks’ on independent media and the safety 7pm on June 14, the 50-year-old journalist exited his office and security of journalists in India. It reiterated the need in Srinagar’s Press Enclave, which houses the majority of for strong laws to stave off the menacing growth of attacks newspaper offices includingRising Kashmir. Three gunmen and killings of journalists in the country. It said more than showered bullets on his vehicle, leaving him dead. Two police 120 journalists had been killed in the country over 25 years, personnel guarding him were also killed in the brutal attack. with 95 percent of cases “still languishing in the labyrinths Police held militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba responsible of pending court cases”. Such attacks and the growing for the murder, and released a list of four suspects including atmosphere of fear amongst working journalists were not Pakistan-based Sajad Gul, Naveed Jatt, Azad Ahmed Malik, only impacting the profession but also the public’s right Muzafar Ahmad Bhat as the killers. While Jatt and Malik to information. While journalists in cities face immense were killed last year, Bhat is still at large. In the face of challenges, the situation of journalists in small towns and police ‘claim’ of solving the case, the Kashmir Editors Guild villages is even more precarious. questioned the unwarranted delay in filing the charge-sheet in the murder case. Bukhari, a peacenik and a regular at Track 2 conferences HAZARDOUS HINTERLAND pushing for dialogue to reduce tensions between India A single day in October highlighted the dangerous reality of and Pakistan, was the 19th journalist to fall to bullets in journalists reporting in the field.
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