Despite the Supreme Court

IN Media Watch Briefs | 15/09/2016

How does an SC clarification on sedition percolate to lower court judges actually hearing these cases? It evidently does not. Despite this SC observation last week that criticizing the govt is not sedition, a Kashmiri youth jailed in Durg in Chhattisgarh has been denied bail today, for a second time. Tauseef Bhat had liked a cartoon on Facebook but the district sessions court judge did not distinguish between posting and liking. Even posting would not have qualified for the 124A charge under the latest SC clarification. But the lower court judge upheld the sedition charge and denied bail.

TAGS

Supreme Court Tauseef Bhat sedition

Subscribe To The Newsletter

Media Watch Briefs

Amazon resisting voluntary censorship

The new term for self censorship is voluntary censorship, as proposed by companies like Netflix and Hotstar. ET reports that streaming video service Amazon Prime is opposing a move by its peers to adopt a voluntary censorship code in anticipation of the Indian government coming up with its own rules. Amazon is resisting because it fears that it may alienate paying subscribers.

Let the games begin

Clearly, the run to the 2019 elections is on. A journalist received a call from someone saying they were from Aajtak channel and were conducting a survey, asking whom she was going to vote for in 2019. On being told that her vote was secret, the caller assumed she wasn't going to vote for 'Modiji'. The caller, a woman, also didn't identify herself. A month or two earlier the same journalist received a call, this time from a man, asking if she was going to vote for the BSP.