As if the murder of journalists and attempts to silence and intimidate media houses from reporting the facts about the ruling party and the government by slapping multi-crore defamation cases were not bad enough comes a fresh jolt to press freedom – an ordinance brought by the Vasundhara Raje government to stop the media from reporting on corruption charges against public servants, magistrates and judges.

On Saturday, news emerged of the BJP government in the state having brought in an ordinance – the Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Ordinance 2017 – that is unprecedented in the kind of restrictions it seeks to impose on the media. The ordinance was promulgated on September 6 but was kept under wraps until now, when the government went public with its intention of enacting the measure as a state law.

According to the Indian Express, the state government will table the Code of Criminal Procedure (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill on the opening day of the assembly session on October 23.

Public servants, judges and magistrates all across India already enjoy immunity from prosecution without prior government permission under Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The Rajasthan ordinance adds two further levels of impunity – no investigation can be ordered by the police under Section 156 or a magistrate under Section 190 into allegations against public servants, judges and magistrates, nor can journalists report on those allegations, unless the government grants sanction to prosecute.