News Broadcasters Association challenges new IT rules in Kerala High Court

The News Broadcasters Association on Thursday said that it has filed a plea in the Kerala High Court challenging the Centre’s new Information Technology rules, PTI reported.

In a statement, the journalists’ body said that the new rules are ultra vires to the Information Technology Act, 2000, and violate Article 14 (Right to Equality) and 19(1)(g) (right to freedom to practice any profession) of the Constitution.

The plea stated that the grievance redressal mechanism as mandated by the new rules have a “chilling effect” on the content of the media. It said that by creating such a structure, the executive has “made inroads into judicial power and vested itself with powers reserved exclusively for the judiciary”.

The new rules – which were announced in February and became effective in May – are framed to regulate social media companies, streaming and digital news content, virtually bringing them, for the first time, under the ambit of government supervision.

In its plea, the News Broadcasters Association said that it sought to challenge Part III of the new rules, which the journalists’ body said, “create an oversight mechanism giving the executive unfettered, unbridled and excessive powers to regulate content of digital news media”.

Part III of the rules, titled ‘Code of Ethics and Procedure and Safeguards…

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