Medianama: Proposed amendments to India's DPDP Act to protect press freedom
Medianama has outlined ten recommended changes to the Digital Personal Data Protection Act to ensure media operations remain exempt from restrictive data processing regulations.
Indian IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has held discussions with media representatives regarding concerns that the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act may inadvertently stifle press freedom. While the government has expressed an openness to considering industry feedback, it has yet to commit to formal legislative amendments ahead of a Supreme Court hearing on November 17 involving 21 major news publications.
Medianama identified ten specific provisions in the current DPDP framework that could conflict with standard journalistic practices. Primary concerns include the lack of specific exemptions for data processing in news gathering, the practical impossibility of obtaining voluntary consent from political or institutional sources, and the potential for subjects to weaponize the "right to erasure" to demand the removal of legitimate reporting. Furthermore, broad government powers to demand information from data fiduciaries have raised alarms about the potential for coerced disclosure of confidential sources.
Critics, including former Supreme Court judge B.N. Srikrishna, have argued that the law in its current form grants the executive branch excessive influence over data regulation. By compiling these concerns, Medianama seeks to provide a roadmap for policy adjustments that would align the DPDP Act with constitutional guarantees of freedom of the press while maintaining data protection standards.