[The U-turn was welcomed by free-press advocates who worry about what they see as a global threat in the guise of prohibitions on news deemed by governments to be false. Malaysia’s lower house of Parliament just approved a measure threatening spreaders of “fake news” with prison sentences.]
By Kai Schultz And Suhasini Raj
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Newspapers
for sale in New Delhi. The government’s “fake news” rule would have
Affected
print and broadcast media, but not digital outlets. Credit Money
Sharma/Agence
France-Presse — Getty Images
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NEW
DELHI — The Indian
government called the decree a crackdown on fake news. It lasted less than a
day.
On Monday evening, the Ministry of
Information and Broadcasting abruptly announced that it would penalize
journalists who spread “fake news,” the term popularized by President Trump to
disparage what he has regarded as unfair coverage of his 2016 American presidential
campaign and first year in office.
The term is now widely used around the world
by authoritarian politicians and governments to describe reporting that they
find objectionable.
Members of India’s freewheeling press
expressed shock and outrage at the announcement, seeing the hidden hand of
Prime Minister Narendra Modi — who enjoys warm relations with Mr. Trump — to
quell negative media coverage ahead of India’s general election next year.
Within hours of the reaction, Mr. Modi’s
government annulled the announcement without explanation on Tuesday morning.
“Press Release regarding Fake News uploaded last evening stands withdrawn,” the
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said on its website.
The U-turn was welcomed by free-press
advocates who worry about what they see as a global threat in the guise of
prohibitions on news deemed by governments to be false. Malaysia’s lower house
of Parliament just approved a measure threatening spreaders of “fake news” with
prison sentences.
But some Indian journalists said the original
announcement might have been meant to test the tolerance of news media outlets
for more restrictions. They noted that journalists critical of leaders from Mr.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party had been under pressure since the party came to
power in 2014.
The original announcement said journalists
found to have written or broadcast “fake news” would lose their official
accreditation.
“Make no mistake: this is a breathtaking
assault on mainstream media,” Shekhar Gupta, a prominent journalist, wrote on
Twitter before the amendment was withdrawn.
The penalties in the original announcement
did not apply to independent or partisan digital media outlets, some of them
regarded in India as major disseminators of fake news. These platforms are not
regulated by the two main media regulatory bodies, the Press Council of India
or the News Broadcasters Association. Instead, the rules would have been felt
primarily by large, established outlets.
In its original announcement, since taken
offline, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said that guidelines for
the accreditation of journalists were being amended to counter “increasing
instances of fake news in various mediums.” The statement did not define fake
news or provide guidelines about who could lodge complaints against
journalists.
The statement said a journalist’s
accreditation would be revoked for six months after a first violation, one year
after a second violation and permanently after three violations. It also said
that once a complaint against a journalist was registered, his or her
accreditation would be suspended until a determination had been made.
An accreditation is not required in India but
is regarded as critical for access to news makers. Accredited journalists in
India face fewer security clearances when visiting government offices and are
eligible for subsidized train travel, among other benefits.
Smriti Irani, who runs the Ministry of
Information and Broadcasting, had said on Twitter that complaints against
journalists would be handled by the Press Council of India and the News
Broadcasters Association. She said neither body was controlled by the
government.
Rajat Sharma, the president of the News
Broadcasters Association, said that his group had not been consulted before the
announcement on Monday. M. V. Shreyams Kumar, the vice president of the
association, called the announcement “ridiculous.”
“This whole exercise is to curb the freedom
of the press,” Mr. Kumar said.
Ms. Irani, after arguing the measure’s merits
on Twitter with journalists and opposition figures, was taking a more
conciliatory tone by midday Tuesday, inviting journalists to meet with her and
provide “suggestions so that together we can fight the menace of ‘fake news’
& uphold ethical journalism.”
Raj Kamal Jha, the chief editor of The Indian
Express, said, “Of course, fake news pollutes public discourse but whose fake
news is it anyway?”
“Spin, cheap shot, empty boast, outright lie,
innocent mistake, an oversight — who gets to decide what’s fake, what’s not?”
he continued. “That’s why the government’s order last night using fake news as
an excuse to punish journalists was an assault on the freedom of the press.”
The Indian Express reported on Tuesday that
at least 13 government ministers, including Ms. Irani, had tweeted a link to an
article claiming to have exposed “four major fake news stories.” The article,
on a website called The True Picture, accused “sections of the media” of
supporting the opposition and trying to portray the government and the
Bharatiya Janata Party in a bad light.
The Indian Express reported that the website
shared a phone number with a company involved in publishing a children’s book
written by Mr. Modi. Employees of the company, Bluekraft Digital Foundation,
said they did not run the website.
Follow Kai Schultz and Suhasini Raj on
Twitter: @Kai_Schultz and @suhasiniraj.