Data protection law: Lack of exemption for journalists will hurt press freedom, says Editors Guild

The lack of exemptions for journalists in the Digital Personal Data Protection Act will bring journalism in the country to a standstill, the Editors Guild of India said in a letter to the Union Ministry for Electronics and Information Technology.

The letter, which was submitted to the Centre on Friday, was made public by the guild on Sunday.

The Act, which was passed by Parliament in August, lays down obligations on private and government entities pertaining to the collection and processing of citizens’ data.

The law also requires data fiduciaries to obtain consent for processing a citizen’s personal data as a matter of routine and grants the individual the right to access, correct, erase, port and restrict their data. It proposes a penalty of up to Rs 250 crore on entities for misusing or failing to protect the digital data of individuals.

A “data fiduciary”, according to the Act, is any entity that processes any personal data. They are the subject of most of the obligations imposed by the Act.

On Sunday, the Editors Guild of India said that it was concerned about the provision as it did not grant exemption to journalists and can impact journalistic activities.

“Specifically, the Guild is concerned about the need for consent, under Section 7 of the DPDPA...

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