EGI voices concern over impact of Digital Personal Data Protection Act on journalism

New Delhi, Feb 18: The Editors Guild of India has submitted a detailed representation to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) expressing serious reservations about the potential repercussions of the recently enacted Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDPA) on journalistic activities.

In a statement issued here, the EGI said that it submitted a representation to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), spelling out some “grave concerns on the impact of the recently enacted Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDPA) on journalistic activities.”

Specifically, the Guild is concerned about the need for consent, under Section 7 of the DPDPA, to process any personal data in the course of their journalistic activities. “The absence of any exemptions for journalistic activities could mean that journalists would invariably have to rely upon consent to process any personal data in the course of their journalistic activities. The fundamental role of the press and its ability to ensure transparency and accountability would be severely undermined by the data principal’s ability to simply refuse consent to the processing of their data,” it said.

“The onerous nature of this requirement was critiqued in the report published by the Committee of Experts under the Chairmanship of Justice B N Srikrishna (Srikrishna Committee) titled “A Free and Fair Digital Economy: Protecting Privacy, Empowering Indians” (Srikrishna Committee Report). The Committee, which prepared the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018, noted that mandating consent for processing such personal data would be unfavourable, as the data principal could simply refuse to consent forestalling all such publishing,” the statement added.

“In our representation we have cited that except for the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, all prior iterations of India’s data protection law – The Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018, the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, and the Data Protection Bill, 2021 – specifically exempted processing for journalistic purposes from complying with most of the corresponding provisions in those drafts, including the obligation to provide notice and obtain consent.

We have therefore urged MeitY to ensure that processing for journalistic purposes be exempted from the application of the DPDPA, and that a class exemption to data fiduciaries undertaking processing for journalistic purposes under section 17(5) of the DPDPA be provided.

Such an exemption is particularly justified given that the absence of such a carve-out will have a necessarily adverse impact on the right to freedom of speech and expression, and the right of journalists to carry on their occupation.”