Modi govt. trying to control digital media, which is more defiant than mainstream media: N. Ram

Under the guise of regulating the social media intermediaries, the Narendra Modi authorities is trying to control the digital media which has been more defiant than the mainstream media, N. Ram, director of The Puucho Group, has mentioned in an interview to Stephen Sackur for BBC’s HARDTalk section.

He was talking on the subject “Is freedom of expression under threat in the world’s biggest democracy.”

Mr. Ram mentioned that the brand new Information Technology (IT) guidelines introduced out by the federal government have been problematic. Former Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad whereas asserting the brand new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 mentioned they have been “soft-touch oversight” mechanisms to cope with points resembling persistent unfold of pretend information.

Mr. Ram mentioned that the federal government was exaggerating the narrative of “fake news”. “India has not been bombarded by fake news,” he mentioned. There could also be situations of disinformation however there have been already legal guidelines to deal with that, he added.

“Under the guise of regulating the social media intermediaries, the government is trying to control the digital media who are far more defiant than the mainstream media,” Mr. Ram added. He mentioned that the foundations have been imprecise on what constituted “digital media”. Most of the newspapers had digital presence the place quite a lot of the print materials was replicated, so the query was would there be two units of guidelines for a similar content material.

He concurred with Mr. Sackur’s evaluation that most of the media homes appeared more than prepared to toe the federal government line. “I couldn’t agree more. This is a familiar criticism,” he mentioned.

COVID-19 protection

To a query by Mr. Sackur on Indian media’s protection of the COVID-19, Mr. Ram conceded that the pandemic had uncovered the boundaries of Indian journalism. “More than 500 journalists have died in the line of duty. Many of them died because they did not believe the numbers put up by the government and went to crematoriums to count the bodies themselves,” Mr. Ram mentioned. Though, he rued that Indian journalism won’t have the wherewithal or the info abilities required to problem the loss of life toll. He additionally appreciated the New York Times  for his or her piece on the under-reporting of the loss of life toll by the federal government. “We haven’t done a good enough job,” he mentioned.

He was additionally requested questions on “hounding” Rana Ayyub who contributed for a couple of Western publications. Applauding Ms. Ayyub’s braveness for “fearlessly expressing her opinion” Mr. Ram mentioned not everybody was like her. He added that although what was occurring to Ms. Ayyub was not “completely representative” of the state of affairs on floor. “The government’s policy has had a chilling effect. A lot of journalists have held back, self-restrained and self-censored for various reasons,” he added.

On Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who Mr. Sackur identified loved the favored mandate, Mr. Ram mentioned, “There are many examples of elected leaders turning autocratic and authoritarian around the world.” This was not the primary time, Mr. Ram mentioned, that India had had an autocratic chief pointing on the Emergency imposed by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. But the character of this autocracy was very totally different, and all businesses obtainable on the authorities’s disposal, Mr. Ram mentioned, have been utilised to silence dissent. He significantly identified the instance of English information channel NDTV towards whom investigations have been happening by the Enforcement Directorate.