To discuss how the new Digital Personal Data Protection Act will impact journalism, five press associations organised an open meeting at the Press Club of India’s premises in New Delhi on Monday.
Anant Nath, president of the Editors’ Guild of India, said the new law has a clause that makes it mandatory for journalists to seek the permission of any individual whose personal data is being reviewed for a report. “This will end independent journalism…the law should have made an exception for journalists because journalism is a public good…now journalists will have to write PR copies,” he said, adding that the guild had written to the central government expressing concerns about the law.
Transparency activist Anjali Bhardwaj spoke about how the law has weakened the provisions for RTI which can impact journalism. “If a journalist wants to find out who are the industrialists who have gone missing after taking loans from public sector banks, the government will say this is personal information and deny this information.”
Bhardwaj said anyone who has data about anyone is a data fiduciary and a data fiduciary can never use this data without the permission of the individual about who the data is. “A complaint can go to the data protection board.”
The open meeting was organised by the Press Club of India, the Indian Women’s Press Corp, the Editors’ Guild of India, Delhi Union Journalists, and DIGIPUB.
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