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NEW DELHI: In the line of Opposition fire for 'censoring internet,' the government has agreed to take a re-look at the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules enforced in April 2011. A motion to annul the rules was moved by CPM's P Rajeev in the Rajya Sabha. While the leader of Opposition in the House, Arun Jaitley, said as it was impossible to defy technology, "the days of censorship and days of withholding information were all over", Rajeev described the rules as "violation of the Constitution, which gives freedom of speech".
Jaitley suggested the government assure the House that it would re-examine the rules, following which communications and information technology minister Kapil Sibal was spared the possible embarrassment of annulling the rules. At the end of a two-hour debate, Sibal assured members that their concerns would be taken into consideration and that they would be invited to a meeting of all stakeholders to discuss the issue. He asked MPs to put down their objections in writing and words they had reservations about. "Jaitley, in his inimitable style, agreed and cautioned, and rightly so, that the interpretation of terms may lead to harassment and curtailment of free speech," Sibal said. The minister also congratulated Rajeev for focusing on the subordinate legislation.
Internet rules require that all intermediaries, which include those who provide internet, telecom, e-mail or blogging services, and cyber cafes, have to remove content that is, "grossly harmful, harassing, blasphemous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, pedophilic, libellous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically objectionable, disparaging, relating or encouraging money laundering or gambling, or otherwise unlawful in any manner whatever."
Hacker group Anonymous, has struck again and this time its much closer home. The group reportedly brought down the Congress website, the Supreme Court website and some other government websites in retaliation for India’s new Internet laws and the blocking of websites like The Pirate Bay and Vimeo.According to PCWorld , the group posted about the attack on their Twitter feed saying, “Namaste India, your time has come to trash the current government and install a new one. Good luck.”
According to their Twitter feed, the group targeted websites of the Indian Supreme Court, the All India Congress Committee, Copyrightlabs.in, Department of Telecommunications, the Ministry of Information Technology, and the Jammu & Kashmir Police. The Congress denied that its website had been hacked. “The site is not hacked at all. It was not opening for sometime because the load on the particular server was too heavy due to huge number of hits after the news of website hacking spread. It went slow at that time due to over-traffic,” Chairman of AICC’c Computer Department Vishwajeet Singh, a former Rajya Sabha MP told PTI.
Yesterday the Rajya Sabha had also debated the issue of Internet censorship with regard to the new IT rules. A number of members opposed the proposed law, which forced Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal to say the government would strive to build a consensus on the subject.According to Medianama, Vimeo, The Pirate Bay, have been blocked because of a John Doe order taken by Copyright Labs, Chennai, from the Madras High Court, for preventing piracy of Tamil Films Dammu and 3.
In creating an independent television channel to promote the Rajya Sabha (RS) and its members, Vice-President Hamid Ansari, who is chairman of the Upper House, seems to have indulged in an extravagance that our stretched public resources can ill-afford.Headed by Gurdeep Singh Sappal, formerly OSD (officer on special duty) to Ansari, Rajya Sabha TV is soaking up money faster than a sponge does water. For 2012-13, the bill will be around Rs 73 crore. A high-level committee of the Upper House — the General Purposes Committee (GPC) — had initially (in May 2006) shot down the idea of a 24-hour TV channel for the RS and the issue had been put to rest.
That was until November 2007 when Sappal, then OSD to the chairman, requested the file on the initiative to “launch Rajya Sabha Television, which was eventually abandoned” to be put up for his perusal.Subsequently, in April 2008, when the GPC gave its ‘in principle’ nod to RS TV, the channel was proposed as joint project with Lok Sabha TV, under a common network called the Sansad Television Network. However, what transpired – the launch of RSTV as an independent entity – was neither approved nor endorsed by the GPC. This, despite members of another Rajya Sabha committee, expressing strong reservations about the creation of an independent channel. In December 2009, when the Rajya Sabha Secretariat informed the House Committee that the possibility of setting up an independent RS TV channel was being seriously considered after the integrated Sansad Television Network hadn’t materialised due to “some problem with the Lok Sabha Secretariat”, the move was strongly opposed by its members.
The minutes of that House Committee meeting (held on 16 December, 2009) state that the members “opined that setting up of a new RS TV channel by spending several crores of rupees may not serve any purpose, as it would not be run by experts in the field, thereby leading to production and airing poor quality programmes. Moreover, the exercise to project the members of the Rajya Sabha was not advisable as proceedings were already being telecast by Doordarshan…The members of the committee, Jaya Bachchan, NK Singh, and Rajiv Pratap Rudy, directed the joint secretary (of the RS Secretariat) that the GPC should be apprised of the observations made by the members as the former had already deliberated upon the issue.”
New Delhi: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's ad campaign worth Rs 25 crore to celebrate one year in power and highlight its achievements has been slammed by critics. Is this an attempt by Amma to position herself for 2014? The Rs 25 crore Amma splash in the national capital was tough to miss as national dailies carried four page adblitz of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister's one year in office.
It seems to have not gone down well with the Opposition, DMK, which questioned her functioning as a Chief Minister.DMK MP Kanimozhi said, "What work has she done?"
Jayalalithaa perhaps wants to use her first anniversary in power to announce her importance on the national stage. One reason why the political class was cautious in its criticism was that AIADMK chief could play an important role in the changing political dynamics."The Union government too brings out ads. What is wrong in her doing so?" said BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu. Congress leader Ambika Soni said, "It is for the governments to decide how they want to spend their money." The Left was, however, unforgiving with Gurudas Dasgupta terming it as a wastage of public money.
While the political class discussed politics, Jayalalithaa was a hit on the social network as twitteratis took a swipe at the AIADMK chief. During the national security meet called by the Centre in April, Jayalalithaa’s parallel meetings with the chief ministers of some of the non-Congress states had taken the sheen away from the Vigyan Bhawan. It clearly seemed, besides acting as a focal point in the centre vs states battle, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister pitching herself as a formidable leader of a possible Third Front.
India is increasingly becoming a "democracy of sound bytes" because of "undue" coverage given by the media to disruptions in Parliament and not to serious debates.This was the general sense expressed by politicians across the board who nudged the media -- both electronic and print -- to cover less the noise in Parliament and give more weightage and coverage to serious issues that are raised in the House.Politicians Arun Jaitley (BJP) and Mani Shankar Aiyar (Congress) spoke in a similar vein at a function to release a book - 'Straight Thoughts' - penned by Lokmat Media Chairman Vijay Darda when they rejected suggestions that politicians were "intolerant" in the wake of the Ambedkar cartoon controversy.
At a panel discussion moderated by senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, Jaitley and Aiyar said politicians are "more accountable" to people and to the media more than anyone in the society and they laugh at cartoons of themselves but oppose only when there is some sensitivity involved. When the MPs disrupt the house and go out, the media wait for their bytes and make it the news of the day. "If I make a decent speech, there is not a hope in hell that you will get two words in," was how Aiyar summed up his views. CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury was more vocal and lent support to Aiyar's views that India was increasingly becoming a "sound byte democracy."
He wanted to know how many newspapers and television channels properly had covered the impeachment process against Justice Soumitra Sen of Calcutta High Court. "This (India) is moving towards becoming a democracy of bytes. There are serious discussions which take place. For the first time, there was an impeachment of a judge. We were exercising the soverign right of the country through Parliament. But it won't get covered," he said. Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi said the country has achieved whatever it could because of the political leadership and added, in an apparent reference to anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare and his team, the "Jantar Mantar" demonstrations are "dangerous" for democrarcy.(DNA)
BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court has brought media under the purview of the SIT inquiry into the March 2 violence at the city civil court complex.A special division bench comprising Justices Ajit Gunjal and B V Nagarathna said: "The SIT is also directed to investigate the broadcasting of certain news items by TV channels on March 2 and subsequent days..."."Sensationalism in the form of breaking news and flash news should be curbed," Justice Nagarathna said with regard to media, particularly TV channels.
The bench said: "Truthful dissemination is essential. Broadcasting cannot lead to any adverse impact on the integrity of India and security of the state. The essence of Article 19(1)(a) read with Article 19(2) is to have a free and balanced press and broadcast media. There has to be compliance with professional ethics in the dissemination of information by media, particularly electronic media, without any bias, malice or bringing out a conflict in society. In this regard, the Union government should consider the modalities of regulating broadcasting media, including a mechanism for addressing grievances."
The bench noted that the Cable TV Networks Regulation Act, 1995, has failed to address the issue as it does not include broadcasters. As regards NBSA or NBA, the bench was of the view that they don't possess legal sanctity to be effective.The bench directed the civil court registrar to evolve a system whereby media personnel can report without disturbing anybody. It suggested including a system of accreditation for mediapersons.The team will also look into complaints from lawyers, police personnel and mediapersons. The court asked the state government to provide necessary infrastructure to the team.
While setting up the SIT, the court said "this is no reflection on the state government or local police". Janardhana Reddy was produced before th CBI court. Scores of lawyers, media personnel and police were involved.The violence at the city civil court occurred the day former minister and mining baron G urt. Scores of lawyers, media personnele and police were involved.
Hyderabad: Sakshi media house, owned by Kadapa MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy, on Wednesday filed an application with the Editors' Guild and the Press Council of India against CBI's action of freezing its bank accounts and the state government's decision to ban issuing advertisements to Sakshi Telugu daily and news channel.In separate representations to the Guild and the PCI, Sakshi editorial director S Ramakrishna Reddy lamented that the CBI's act has left Sakshi newspaper "virtually paralysed". "This is not only an attack on the employees of Sakshi media but also on the media and freedom of press. How can CBI indulge in this unlawful act of freezing the current accounts that impact livelihood of more than 20,000 persons, besides gagging media establishments", Reddy asked.
The CBI neither issued prior notice to the company nor informed the court concerned before freezing the bank accounts, he pointed out.While the Sakshi management has challenged the CBI order in the court, its employees also filed another petition in the state High Court, Ramakrishna Reddy added. CBI got the bank accounts of Jagati Publications, Indira Television and Janani Infrastructure, belonging to YS Jagan, frozen on May 8 as part of the investigations into the MP's disproportionate assets case. The next day, the AP government issued an order asking its departments, corporations and other wings not to issue advertisements to Sakshi newspaper and television channel.Sakshi management, however, did not get any relief as the special court of CBI refused to defreeze the bank accounts.
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