Editors Guild Urges Exemption for Journalists in Digital Data Protection Act

The Editors Guild of India has petitioned the Center to remove certain provisions of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act that it claims infringe upon the constitutional right to free speech guaranteed by Article 19.

The Act was enacted by Parliament last year, and dates will be announced by the Center before it becomes effective.


The Guild claims that it is too onerous and unfeasible for journalists to give permission before publishing any data pertaining to any individual in their stories.

In a letter to Union electronics and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday, Guild President Anant Nath stated, "While certain journalistic activities involving interviews, collecting responses to questionnaires, etc., may be covered under Section 7(a) of the DPDPA, which recognizes voluntary provision of personal data by the data principal, most other forms of journalism, such as investigative journalism, general news reporting, opinion pieces, analyses, etc., are still largely dependent on private research and investigative study by journalists, which is remarkably absent in the current list of legitimate uses."

"In light of this, journalists will inevitably need to obtain consent in order to process any personal data they handle for their journalism."

The letter emphasized that mandated approval for processing such personal data would be unfavorable, since the data principal might simply decline to agree, forestalling any such publication, as observed by the Srikrishna Committee, which prepared the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018. The data principal's power to simply deny permission to the use of their data would therefore seriously weaken the press's essential function and its ability to provide openness and accountability.

It went on to say: "For example, if a journalist is looking into the people behind a fraudulent or Ponzi scheme, covering a traffic accident in a specific city, or publishing information about an individual who lives in another city, having to give notice and get consent would not only be impractical or unfeasible, but it would also likely defeat the purpose of the journalistic endeavor by causing an excessive amount of delay or making it more difficult for the journalist to publish the news report itself.

"Personal data is something that journalists deal with on a daily basis as part of their job, whether it's via research, following up on a lead, or writing pieces based on it. The DPDPA unreasonably restricts these core occupation activities by placing obligations on them that are frequently unrealistic or unfeasible or that undermine the very journalistic activity that is being pursued by carrying out such processing. As a result, every Article 19(1)(g) is violated by the requirements under the DPDPA.

India has acknowledged that the basic right to freedom of speech and expression, as protected by Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, includes the right to acquire information. In a democracy, having access to information is crucial because it gives people the knowledge they need to make educated decisions.

"If journalists are effectively prevented from processing personal data without first adhering to unrealistic and unfeasible duties, and therefore unable to either receive or distribute information, then these rights are rendered meaningless.”

A class exemption to data fiduciaries undertaking processing for journalistic purposes under section 17(5) of the DPDPA for as long as such reasons continue is what the Guild has requested before the legislation goes into effect.

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