Refer Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 to standing committee: IJU

HYDERABAD: The Indian Journalists Union (LJU) on Monday urged the Lok Sabha Speaker to refer the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill 2023 to a parliamentary standing committee, expressing concerns over key clauses in the bill that could restrict journalistic freedom in the country.

In a statement issued on Monday IJU President K. Sreenivas Reddy and Secretary General Balwinder Singh Jammu said Section 36 of the DPDP Bill could be used by the Government to know the personal information of journalists and their sources.

The provision would allow the Government to seek any public or private entity to furnish the personal information of any person. “It does not exempt journalists. This can be exploited by the Government to seek the personal information of journalists,” the IJU leaders said.

The bill would exempt the government from provisions of the bill, and allow the latter to retain, share internally and process data for any period. These features could create an atmosphere of surveillance which might lead to a chilling effect on the activity of journalists in the country, the IJU leaders opined.

They further described clause 44(3) as detrimental to the working of media as it sought to do away with the exemptions provided in the Right to Information Act for withholding personal information.