Monday 8 January 2018

Freedom of speech and whistleblowers

The whistleblowers play the role of finding out discrepancies in the functioning of public bodies and report them for the public good. From finding out about tax havens to frauds in democratic process to breach in data security, whistleblowers play the part of finding out the truth and placing it in public domain. Since, the whistleblowers are bringing out sensitive data in the public, they are given certain protections and immunities to ensure that they are able to perform their work without any fear.
The Unique Identification Authority of India filed a FIR against the reporter and the newspaper which was able to determine the loopholes in the data security. Such an act is injurious for the freedom of press and attacks anyone who is serving the public interest by finding out the loopholes in the system. Instead of working on its loopholes and fixing the breaches in its data security system, the authority has filed charges of impersonation, forgery, cheating, using forged documents and under the IT Act. Such an action is an attempt to intimidate anyone who tries to question the functioning of the authority and obstructs free, fair and independent journalism.

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