Gagged and Criminalised: Journalism Critical of UP Govt Being Dubbed ‘Fake News’ – The Quint

In 2017, Reporters Without Borders called India Asias deadliest country for media personnel, ahead of both Pakistan and Afghanistan. This assessment, however, is primarily based on crimes against journalists, state-sponsored censorship, and the dispensation of justice in cases of journalist killings. It doesn't capture the government's routine gagging of press freedom by resorting to a law that penalises "spreading rumours".

While there is no specific law in India that defines, regulates, or penalises "fake news" by press, the ambiguously worded Section 505 is actively exploited by the state to target the media.

As data suggests, cases registered under Section 505 of the IPC do not stand the test of a criminal trial. Most of them fall apart at the stage of framing the charges. However, as per the government's own data tabled before the Lok Sabha during Parliament's Monsoon Session, the registration of such cases has consistently risen since 2014.

Sanjeev Singh, an investigative journalist from Muzaffarnagar, realised the nature of this "gagging through crime" the moment police came to his house late at night in September 2020 to arrest him.

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Gagged and Criminalised: Journalism Critical of UP Govt Being Dubbed 'Fake News' - The Quint