New Delhi: Journalists’ organisations have welcomed a Supreme Court order upholding individual privacy and restraining the Enforcement Directorate (ED) from accessing and copying content from the various electronic devices seized during raids.
Two prominent unions of journalists, the Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) and the National Association of Journalists (NAJ), applauded the verdict which ensures the protection of citizens’ private, personal and professional communications.
“In this context, we condemn the Kerala Police’s action against journalist Aniru Asokan of Madhyamam daily. Asokan has been sent a notice demanding that he provide his mobile to the Police for investigation after he exposed a data leak by a government department,” the journalists’ associations stated. They expressed their solidarity with the aggrieved journalist and the Kerala Union of Working Journalists in this matter, which is protesting against the police demand.
The Supreme Court Order, by Justices Abhay S. Oka and Pankaj Mithal, comes in the case of a company Future Gaming. The case will be heard in February, along with connected cases, including petitions filed by Amazon India employees against the Enforcement Directorate’s demands for their electronic devices and similar demands by news portal NewsClick employees.
In October 2023, the homes of over 70 NewsClick employees, most of them journalists, were raided and some 300 laptops, hard discs, mobiles and other devices were seized. NewsClick has asked for the return of the devices and for the Court to frame guidelines on the seizure of devices.
“We urge the Court to reiterate the right to privacy, including the privacy of digital communication, in its final order and to ensure that devices are returned intact to their rightful owners,” the Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) and the National Association of Journalists stated.
– global bihari bureau
