Sedition

Press Council sends notice on sedition case

IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |04/05/2018

 The Press Council of India (PCI) has sought a report from the Chhattisgarh government on the filing of a sedition case against Kamal Shukla, the editor of 'Bhumkal Samachar' published from Kanker district. The case was filed against him for sharing on a social media site a cartoon that allegedly carried a..

 

Sedition charges against 111 in UP

IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |05/12/2017

Sedition charges have been slapped against 111 people for allegedly raising anti-national slogans during the victory march of a Congress candidate in Lakhimpur Kheri who had defeated her BJP rival at the recently concluded civic bodies poll in UP, reports TOI. The candidate denied that the slogans were raised by her followers.  

 

A status quoist, not transformative right

BY ABHINAV CHANDRACHUD| IN BOOKS |18/10/2017

The enactment of Article 19 of the Constitution made merely a rhetorical change, not a substantive one, to the right to free speech in India,

 

Sedition case against Amnesty fizzles out

IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |16/07/2017

Eleven months after booking Amnesty International, India representatives for sedition  following an event in the city, the Bengaluru City Police have filed a B report in the case  for want of evidence to make the charge, reports the Hindu. The case had been booked following an event in the city in August last..

 

No sedition here, please

IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |18/01/2017

The Indian Womens Press Corp in Delhi, housed for many years in a government bungalow, is a favourite low-cost location for holding press conferences and such like.  But it is suddenly drawing attention for a condition it seems to have imposed on those renting space in its   premises.  Telegraph reports..

 

Free speech in the courts: legal outcomes in 2016

BY SEVANTI NINAN| IN MEDIA FREEDOM |30/12/2016

Sedition, defamation, censorship, internet shutdowns—the year saw the courts being tested on a range of freedom of expression issues.

 

Writer arrested for FB post

IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |19/12/2016

Malayalam writer and theatre activist Kamal C. Chavara, alias Kamalsy Prana, was arrested in Kozhikode on Sunday for a Facebook post where he allegedly slighted the national anthem, reports The Indian Express. Chavara was charged with sedition under Section 124 (A) of the Indian Penal Code after members of the..

 

 

Bhat gets bail, finally

IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |27/10/2016

Tausif Ahmed Bhat, the Kashmiri youth in Chhattisgarh who was arrested on charges of sedition for liking a cartoon on Facebook,  was finally granted bail by Justice Goutam Bhat of the Chhattisgarh High Court, on his fourth bail plea. The judge said he was not the author of the post..

 

No bail for Tauseef

IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |05/10/2016

A Kashmiri youth is lodged in a jail  in Durg, Chhattisgarh, since August 3, on charges of sedition for allegedly liking a Facebook post that made fun of India. He has been refused bail twice and on Oct 4 when it  came up again a judge of the High Court reserved his orders on Tauseef..

 

 Despite the Supreme Court

IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |15/09/2016

How does an SC clarification on sedition percolate to lower court judges  actually hearing these cases? It evidently does not. Despite this SC observation last week that criticizing the govt is not sedition, a Kashmiri youth jailed in Durg in Chhattisgarh has been denied bail today, for a second time... ??

 

Why is Tauseef Bhat in jail?

BY GEETA SESHU| IN DIGITAL MEDIA |04/09/2016

He is a young Kashmiri man charged with sedition. His offence? Sharing a cartoon showing India being swept by a broom on Facebook. ??

 

Sedition goes viral?

BY SIDDHARTH NARRAIN and GEETA SESHU| IN MEDIA FREEDOM |19/08/2016 ?

Is most free speech becoming seditious because the law is being applied so casually, without the care that is meant to be exercised?

 

HRW: Govt urged to stop treating critics as criminals

IN SPECIAL REPORTS |25/05/2016

The Indian government should repeal or amend both recent and colonial era laws that are used to criminalize peaceful expression.

 

Peddling simplistic ideas of nationalism

BY ANANTHAKRISHNAN| IN OPINION |29/02/2016

The media is trying to redefine and appropriate definitions for concepts like nationalism under a propaganda-induced context.

 

The art of manufacturing international outrage

BY SANKRANT SANU| IN OPINION |25/02/2016

One area of persistent obfuscation in many media accounts, especially in international media, was the use of Kanhaiya Kumar’s speech of Feb 11 as the reason for his arrest.

 

How Zee TV fuelled state action against JNU students

BY HOOT| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |21/02/2016

Local police filed their FIR not on the basis of the information they gathered on campus on February 9, but on the basis of Zee TV footage made available to them.

 

A black day for media and democracy

BY NUPUR BASU| IN MEDIA PRACTICE |16/02/2016

Sedition charges, BJP assaulters, attackers in lawyers’ robes, nationalist anchors—the media’s freedom was tested on Monday by all of these.

 

Made for each other

IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |13/02/2016

A TV spectacle. Last night Nupur Sharma of the BJP and anchor Zakka Jacob had a royal spat on CNN- IBN while debating the JNU students sedition issue. It deteriorated by the second and had Jacob asking Sharma if she lacked any TV decorum and Sharma actually said yes she..

 

Free speech in India, 2015

IN SPECIAL REPORTS |31/12/2015

Eight deaths, 30 attacks, 48 cases of defamation, 14 of sedition—its been grim year for free speech in India.

 

December sedition update

IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |11/12/2015

In the first  10 days of the month so far three new cases of sedition have been filed, one each in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and in Tamil Nadu. There were two arrests for sedition in Punjab and Haryana, and one case of denial of bail in a sedition case to..

 

Sedition cases multiply

BY NANDITA JHA| IN LAW AND POLICY |13/11/2015

From folk songs to Facebook comments, the charge of sedition is being generously applied.

 

Sedition circular stayed

IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |22/09/2015

Justice Kanade of the Bombay High Court has stayed the Maharashtra government's controversial sedition circular which seeks to bring into its purview negative comments against elected representatives. Adv Mihir Desai, who appeared for petitioners (cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, womens' rights activists Sandhya Gokhale, NJ Hasina and anr.) pointed out discrepancies in the Marathi..

 

Sedition clause clarified

IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |08/09/2015

he uproar over the Maharashtra sedition circular was caused by translation into  Marathi, and editing of the original English clause in the court guidelines.  The government  circular reworded  the court guidelines to project a harsher view of what constitutes sedition. The original court guidelines said that the "words, signs or representations against politicians..

 

Thin line between free and seditious speech?

BY GEETA SESHU| IN MEDIA FREEDOM |06/09/2015

The Maharashtra guidelines ignore the SC distinction and bring elected representatives and government officers within the ambit of sedition. ??

 

Can guidelines prevent misuse of bad laws?

IN MEDIA FREEDOM |20/03/2015

Guidelines for Sec 66 A of the IT Act and now, for sedition, are scant protection.

 

Mere criticism is not seditious: Bombay High Court on Aseem Trivedi's cartoons

IN LAW AND POLICY |18/03/2015

Freedom of speech cannot be encroached upon if there is no incitement to violence or intention of disrupting public order, says the judgement.

 

Sedition? Oh no! Not again!

IN MEDIA FREEDOM |14/08/2014

The FIR against Telangana politician K Kavitha underlines the need to jettison this colonial-era law.

 

Don't use sedition, scrap it!

IN MEDIA FREEDOM |04/08/2013

And most definitely not for textbook writers who wrongly omit Arunachal Pradesh from a map of India!

 

Kudankulam's nuclear holy cow

BY NUPUR BASU| IN SPECIAL REPORTS |18/12/2012

The Tamil media was clearly negating a powerful people's movement with its inexplicable prejudices which were fully exploited by the security forces.

 

Redefining sedition

IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |17/09/2012

The goverment has decided that the  definition of sedition in the 142 year old law has to change. The  Group of Ministers on media has decided to approach the Home Ministry to change the  law because law enforcement  agencies need to differentiate between anti-government protesters and..

 

A selective notion of corruption

BY ARITRA BHATTACHARYA| IN MEDIA FREEDOM |14/09/2012

Aseem Trivedi's picture of contemporary India reflects only political and bureaucratic corruption, bribery in particular.

 

Laws we no longer need

IN MEDIA FREEDOM |12/09/2012

The arrest of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi has served to focus attention on the issue of holding a modernizing democracy hostage to colonial laws.

 

 

Unjustified penal action

BY Madabhushi Sridhar| IN MEDIA FREEDOM |12/09/2012

The cartoons by Aseem Trivedi may be starkly repulsive and indulge in exaggerated satire, but they cannot be termed seditious.

 

En masse sedition in Koodankulam

IN CENSORSHIP |26/04/2012

How can a peaceful agitation of villagers against a nuclear power plant in their backyard be a seditious activity? Yet an unprecedented 3500 protestors have been charged with sedition...

 

Why is this cartoonist caged?

IN MEDIA PRACTICE |23/04/2012

Aseem Trivedi is determined to bring the fight for freedom in the virtual media into the 'real' world - on the street, in full view of the public.

 

Time to scrap sedition

IN MEDIA FREEDOM |18/04/2011

Its time we jettisoned sedition, and the Binayak Sen case is a perfect example of why this needs to be done.

 

Artists speak up!

IN MEDIA PRACTICE |07/04/2011

The Sedition Law directly attacks the freedom of expression, and is therefore impossible to reconcile with conditions necessary for a healthy atmosphere for culture, art and intellectual life,

 

Freed in 2011

IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |01/01/2011

One of last year’s victims of sedition charges was released on New Year’s Day in Srinagar, after the High Court granted him an interim bail on Friday. The teacher Noor Mohammed Bhat was arrested last month for setting an exam question paper around last year’s Kashmir’s unrest. Earlier On Dec..

 

Lop-sided reading of evidence led to Sen’s conviction

IN MEDIA PRACTICE |31/12/2010

In convicting Binayak Sen of sedition, the sessions court has not only chosen to ignore evidence to the contrary but has also extended the interpretation of section 124A illogically.

 

Sedition, free speech and dissent

BY FSH| IN MEDIA FREEDOM |30/12/2010

The year 2010 has seen this law invoked by state governments on not less than five occasions, including Dr Sen’s case. Is the law on sedition being invoked a little too often for a democracy that values free speech..

 

Being flip?

IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |24/12/2010

“One person who won’t be enjoying his Christmas eve is rights activist Binayak Sen…” The opening words of the NewsX evening bulletin item on the conviction of Dr Binayak Sen for sedition and treason. Fit occasion for being flip...

 

 

Mathrubhumi instilling fear

BY Sudeep KS| IN REGIONAL MEDIA |05/12/2010

Following a play and a documentary on the plight of the post-LTTE Tamils, Mathrubhumi front-paged a sedition story implicating the organisers. ??

 

The sedition case against Roy and Geelani: a case of the reluctant prosecution

BY Rakesh Shukla| IN MEDIA FREEDOM |02/12/2010

The directive of a Delhi metropolitan magistrate to police to file an FIR charging sedition against the writer and the Kashmiri separatist leader, ??

 

Demand to uphold free speech and expression

IN MEDIA FREEDOM |30/11/2010

Academicians, film-makers, journalists, lawyers, writers and others have come together to condemn the demand to levy charges of sedition against writer Arundhati Roy ??

 

How sedition crept into the framing of the Constitution

IN MEDIA FREEDOM |06/11/2010

The response of a newly independent nation to cries for freedom indicates its maturity, or lack of it.

 

Clamping down on the dissenting voice 

IN MEDIA FREEDOM |06/11/2010

Despite stricter judicial interpretations of sedition, dissenting voices have been prosecuted under it..

 

Disaffection and the State: the Law of Sedition in India

IN MEDIA FREEDOM |03/11/2010

Three sedition trials – of Tilak, Gandhi and Sheikh Abdullah – hold out important lessons on freedom of speech and dissent,

 

Accusing Times Now

IN MEDIA WATCH BRIEFS |02/11/2010

While the Hindu has been more than willing to speak in her defence and give her the space to tell her story, Arundhati Roy is questioning the credentials of TV channels. In her piece in the Hindu she has more than hinted at the nexus between trouble makers and TV workers...

 

"Sedition charges, despite the Supreme Court"

IN CENSORSHIP |29/10/2010

Though the government has backed down on charging Roy and Geelani with sedition, lesser-known activists in India have been charged with sedition this year. State governments have been ignoring the Supreme Court's qualifier on this law.

 

But what about the little guys

BY hoot| IN MEDIA FREEDOM |28/10/2010

When you raise your voice a little too stridently against injustice in India’s districts you invite charges of sedition.

 

Sedition, free speech and dissent

IN MEDIA FREEDOM |27/12/2010

Five instances of sedition in 2010 alone - what does this tell us about our democracy

 

Orissa journalist languishes in jail

BY DEBABRATA MOHANTY| IN MEDIA FREEDOM |20/11/2009

Choudhury continues to languish behind bars in a cell of R Udaygiri jail in Gajapati as two courts threw out his bail applications.

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The new term for self censorship is voluntary censorship, as proposed by companies like Netflix and Hotstar. ET reports that streaming video service Amazon Prime is opposing a move by its peers to adopt a voluntary censorship code in anticipation of the Indian government coming up with its own rules. Amazon is resisting because it fears that it may alienate paying subscribers.                   

Clearly, the run to the 2019 elections is on. A journalist received a call from someone saying they were from Aajtak channel and were conducting a survey, asking whom she was going to vote for in 2019. On being told that her vote was secret, the caller assumed she wasn't going to vote for 'Modiji'. The caller, a woman, also didn't identify herself. A month or two earlier the same journalist received a call, this time from a man, asking if she was going to vote for the BSP.                 

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