Editorial 1 : New data law, a barrier to journalistic free speech
Context
In the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the removal of ‘journalistic exemption’ highlights the need for more robust public consultation.
About
- In August 2023, India got its first comprehensive data protection law, the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023.
- The law is largely based on users giving consent for the processing of their personal data.
- It provides basic rights such as access to and erasure of data, places some obligations on companies, and establishes a complaints body for grievance redress. However, the law might have an invisible impact on journalistic free speech.
An impediment
- Typically, data protection laws exempt journalistic activities from privacy obligations such as notifying users and taking their consent before using their personal data.
- Three previous drafts of the DPDP Act had exemptions for journalistic activities, but the final law withdrew such an exemption.
- The Editors Guild of India also pointed to this risk and in a letter to the government, requested that journalistic activities be exempted from the DPDP Act.
- It would impact a journalist as when all information about an MP is their ‘personal data’, which is data protected under the DPDP Act and consequently, any journalist who wishes to use this data will have to get their consent before publishing the story.
- Even after publication, the MP can exercise their right to erasure and request journalists to delete such stories.
- Further, the DPDP Act empowers the government to call for information from any data processor in India.
- Depending on how this provision is interpreted and applied, this may impact the confidentiality that journalists must maintain for their sources and research documents.
- Taken together, this need for journalists to get consent before publishing their story, the potential for the subject to rely on the right to erasure to have the story deleted, and the power of the government to call for information would likely impede a journalist’s ability to discharge their role as the fourth estate — of holding the state accountable.
Suggestions
- One of the primary ways to get feedback on a law is to institute an ‘open and transparent’ public consultation model.
- Although the Indian government released three separate drafts of the data protection law for public consultation, none of the comments received on the drafts has ever been released in the public domain.
- This impedes the ability of citizens to understand what different stakeholders were saying and who was finally heard in the final formulation of the law.
- The government has also conducted invite-only town halls to gather feedback on drafts of the DPDP Act.
- And, no clarification was provided by the government for its withdrawal.
- Unfortunately, these consultations and town halls are often not conducive to enable open debate and deliberation on the proposed law and its provisions.
Way forward
- In addition to enabling an open and transparent consultation process, the government can swiftly remedy this problem via rules under the DPDP Act.
- Although an exemption for journalistic work should form part of the core text of the law, the government must use this rule to exempt journalistic entities, including citizen journalists, from any obligations under the DPDP Act.
- This will ensure that the DPDP Act does not have negative consequences on journalistic free speech in India.
Editorial 2 : India’s Arctic imperative
Introduction
In December 2023, four Indian climate scientists arrived in Oslo to begin acclimatisation for India’s maiden winter expedition at the Arctic.
Growing interest in the Arctic
- Himadri, India’s research station in the International Arctic Research Base at Svalbard in Norway, had until hosted missions only in the summer.
- In March 2024, India’s first winter experience at the Arctic came to a successful end.
- For over a decade, India’s National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research saw no reason for a winter mission to the Arctic. What changed Indian policy, ostensibly, was scientific data showing that the Arctic was warming faster than previously thought.
- Second, New Delhi is seized of the opening up of Arctic Sea routes, primarily the Northern Sea Route, and would like to route Indian trade through the region.
- This might help India reduce costs for shipping companies along with time, fuel, and security costs for transmitting goods.
- The third reason is geopolitics. China’s growing investments in the Arctic have raised concern in India. Russia’s decision to grant China expanded access to the Northern Sea Route has deepened this anxiety.
- India’s increasing focus on the Arctic comes at a time of heightened tensions in the region, fuelled by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and exacerbated by the suspension of various regional cooperative forums.
- For India, which aims to maintain constructive relations with both western nations and Russia, these developments carry significant strategic implications.
India, no newcomer
- To be sure, India is no newcomer to the Arctic.
- Its involvement in the region goes back to 1920, with the signing of the Svalbard Treaty in Paris. In 2007, India undertook its first research mission to investigate Arctic microbiology, atmospheric sciences, and geology.
- A year later, India became the only developing country, aside from China, to establish an Arctic research base.
- After being granted ‘observer’ status by the Arctic Council in 2013, India commissioned a multi-sensor moored observatory in Svalbard in 2014 and an atmospheric laboratory in 2016.
- The work at these stations focuses on examining Arctic ice systems and glaciers and the consequences of Arctic melt on the Himalayas and the Indian monsoon.
- The concern primarily stems from mining in the region for fossil fuels, an area where India has yet to articulate a clear economic strategy.
- The proponents of economic exploitation in the Arctic advocate a pragmatic approach in the region, especially around oil and gas exploration, and mining.
- The sceptics warn about the potential environmental consequences and underscore the need for a more balanced policy framework that recognises the negative aspects of maritime resource exploitation.
Potential for collaboration
- Norway, the present chair of the Arctic Council, has close ties with India. Since the late 1980s, the two countries have collaborated to investigate changing conditions in the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as their impact on South Asia.
- India’s present policy is to cooperate with Arctic countries in green energy, and green and clean industries, as a way of bolstering its ‘responsible stakeholder’ credentials.
- With Denmark and Finland, for instance, Indian collaboration has come in areas such as waste management, pollution control, renewable energy, and green technology.
- While the Indian government seems keen to benefit from seabed mining and resource exploitation in the Arctic, it ought to unequivocally back a sustainable mode of extraction.
Way forward
- Many believe a partnership with Norway could be transformational for India as it would enable greater Indian participation in the Arctic Council’s working groups, tackling issues such as the blue economy, connectivity, maritime transportation, investment and infrastructure, and responsible resource development.
- As global geopolitical tensions are also mounting in the Arctic, finding constructive and non-sensitive ways to alleviate pressure will be in the interest of both India and Norway.