Sedition clause clarified

IN Media Watch Briefs | 08/09/2015

The uproar over the Maharashtra sedition circular was caused by translation into Marathi, and editing of the original English clause in the court guidelines. The government circular reworded the court guidelines to project a harsher view of what constitutes sedition. The original court guidelines said that the "words, signs or representations against politicians or public servants by themselves do not fall in this category unless the words/signs/representations show them as representative of the government." The last phrase, after editing became "If they are against a representative of the government." (NDTV)

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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.

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