Seizure Of Journalists' Digital Devices A Serious Matter, Better Guidelines Needed To Protect Media Professionals : Supreme Court To Centre

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (November 7) expressed concerns over the arbitrary seizure of media professionals' digital devices and stressed the need for better guidelines to protect their interests. A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the Foundation for Media Professionals through Advocate-on-Record Rahul Narayan urging the court to establish safeguards against unreasonable interference by law enforcement agencies and create comprehensive guidelines for search and seizure of digital devices."There are several complicated, legal issues that are required to be examined," Additional Solicitor-General SV Raju told the bench during today's hearing, seeking an adjournment. During the brief courtroom exchange, Senior Advocate Siddharth Agarwal, appearing for the petitioner, attempted to underscore the seriousness of the issues raised in the petition and the threats that law enforcement agency's unmitigated search and seizure powers posed to constitutional guarantees - "There are hundreds of journalists whose digital devices are taken away en masse. The issues raised in this petition are very significant because there are no guidelines with reference to when and what may be seized, what can be accessed, what kind of protection is ensured for personal data, health data, financial data...The entire digital footprint is on that one device. Once an investigating agency is involved, it's not like the person can have a back-up..."The additional solicitor-general protested at this juncture, saying that there were provisions, which, among other things, allowed a person whose digital devices have been seized to back up their data. Justice Kaul, however, stressed the importance of guidelines to protect journalists from arbitrary seizures -"It's a serious matter. These are media professionals who will have their own sources and other things. There must be some guidelines. If you take everything away, there's a problem. You must ensure that there are some guidelines."While the data recovered from the digital devices ought not to be disclosed to third parties, the investigating agency has to go through the data to find the portion that is relevant to the investigation, ASG Raju insisted. "You cannot shut out the investigating agency completely and totally. Their prayer is to do just this." In response, Justice Kaul firmly said that guidelines were required to ensure that the powers of the agency were not misused in this respect -"Mr Raju, I'm finding it very difficult to accept some kind of all-within power that the agencies have...This is very dangerous. You must have better guidelines. If you want us to do it, we'll do it. But my view is that you ought to do it yourself. It's time that you ensure that this is not misused. It can't be a State that's run only through its agencies. We'll give you time, no difficulty. But you must analyse what kind of guidelines are necessary to protect them. To some extent, this is not adversarial in that sense."This is about state power against individual rights, Agarwal chimed in. "Today, investigating agencies compel people even to provide biometric information...There are issues that need to be considered. This is used by all political dispensations, not any particular one.""One dispensation teaches the other," Justice Kaul quipped.Agarwal continued, "The media is a common enemy to everybody because truth is something that comes through us.""I agree that the media has rights," ASG Raju interjected, "But they are not above the law."To this, Agarwal countered, "We only want the law to be laid down.""You need to lay down guidelines," Justice Kaul agreed, before pronouncing -"Learned additional solicitor general requests for some time to better examine the matter so that he can make submissions. We have however put to the learned ASG that there has to be a balancing of interests and proper guidelines need to be in place to protect the interest of media professionals. We would like the learned ASG to work on this and come back on this issue. This is more so in view of the aspect that privacy is held to be a fundamental right."The hearing will continue on Wednesday, December 6. Recently, a group of media organizations, in the wake of raids of journalists associated with 'NewsClick', had written to the Chief Justice of India seeking guidelines on seizure of digital devices. Background The Foundation for Media Professionals, a society of journalists, has highlighted the increasing reliance on personal digital devices by its members for their journalistic work, which often involves handling “confidential information of public value, private correspondence with sources and whistle-blowers, and remote collaboration to break news stories in the public interest”. Therefore, the society, it has been argued, has a specific interest in advocating for adequate legal safeguards for the right to privacy in...

Seizure Of Journalists' Digital Devices A Serious Matter, Better Guidelines Needed To Protect Media Professionals : Supreme Court To Centre

Awstika Das

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