The richest man in the world and self-described “free speech absolutist,” Elon Musk, has however not yet responded to the ruling…reports Asian Liite News
Elon Musk’s X platform was restricted due to a dispute over disinformation, but the Brazilian Supreme Court has now lifted the restriction on the social media platform, reported Al Jazeera on Wednesday.
“I authorise the immediate return of the activities” of X, Judge Alexandre de Moraes said in his ruling, after the company paid millions of dollars in fines for failing to comply with a series of court orders.
Judge de Moraes offered the Brazilian communications authority a 24-hour window to restore platform accessibility.
The richest man in the world and self-described “free speech absolutist,” Elon Musk, has however not yet responded to the ruling, reported Al Jazeera.
Previously, De Moraes took the contentious decision to outlaw X in Brazil when Elon Musk, the company’s billionaire owner, disobeyed court orders to take down accounts that were allegedly disseminating false information.
In addition, the social media network missed a legally mandated deadline to designate a legal representation in Brazil, reported Al Jazeera.
Musk is the owner of both Starlink and X, and Starlink personnel allegedly stated their internet service will not abide by the limitation at first following the court’s order on X.
Musk referred to de Moraes as an “evil dictator” after the court decided to shut X.
Musk also sympathised to those who supported Jair Bolsonaro, the erstwhile right-wing leader of Brazil, who disseminated unverified information on the October 2022 election, which he lost, Al Jazeera reported.
Bolsonaro’s followers eventually invaded the nation’s legislature on January 8, 2023, calling for a military coup to overturn his defeat.
Since then, Bolsonaro has been unable to hold public office until 2030, and similar to Musk, he and Justice de Moraes have clashed over investigations into his behaviour. (ANI)
Guardian editor-in-chief Katharine Viner said a deal with Tortoise “has the potential to be a very positive thing…reports Asian Lite News
News publisher Guardian Media Group said Tuesday it is in talks to sell The Observer newspaper to Tortoise Media, a “slow news” outlet founded by a former BBC executive and a US diplomat.
Founded in 1791, the Observer is the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper. It was bought by Guardian Media Group, which also publishes the Guardian, in 1993. Tortoise was co-founded in 2019 by James Harding, a former BBC news executive and editor of The Times newspaper, and Matthew Barzun, who was a U.S. ambassador to Britain between 2013 and 2017.
Tortoise has produced multimedia investigations including the popular podcast “Sweet Bobby,” which is set to be made into a Netflix documentary. The companies did not disclose the price or terms of the potential deal.
Guardian editor-in-chief Katharine Viner said a deal with Tortoise “has the potential to be a very positive thing.” “My number one priority is a future in which both titles continue to thrive and deliver high quality journalism to our readers,” she said.
Harding said the Observer “is one of the greatest names in news.”
“We believe passionately in its future – both in print and digital,” he said, promising to maintain the newspaper’s “uncompromising commitment to editorial independence, evidence-based reporting and journalistic integrity.”
The Observer, like the rest of the newspaper industry, has suffered a decline in print sales. Its circulation was 136,656 copies in 2021, before GMG stopped publishing ABC sales data.
Its online content is closely integrated with the Guardian’s.
Tortoise said it would continue to publish The Observer on a Sunday and build the digital Observer, combining it with Tortoise’s podcasts, newsletters and live events.
“Like its many, many loyal readers, we admire the strength and heart of The Observer’s reporting, we prize its original, unbiddable thinking and we love it for its passions: food, music, film and art,” Harding said.
“George Orwell described The Observer as ‘the enemy of nonsense’; we’re excited to show readers, old and new, that it still is,” he added.
GMG’s 2023-24 results, published on Tuesday, showed pressure from a slowdown in advertising and the long-term print decline.
Overall revenue fell 2.5% to 257.8 million pounds ($340.6 million), it said, and adjusted cash outflow rose to 36.5 million pounds, from 17.3 million pounds in the previous year.
The company is owned by the Scott Trust, an endowment fund valued at 1.275 billion pounds, the results showed.
Assange was not a spy, but a journalist. He was not a US citizen but an Australian, writes Prof. Madhav Das Nalapat
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Julian Assange is back in his home country, Australia, after serving what in effect was a 14-year sentence of imprisonment. Even within the Ecuadorian embassy in London, the founder of WikiLeaks was effectively a prisoner, unable to move a step beyond the walls of the embassy without being arrested. A change in the Ecuadorian leadership saw what must have been a welcome development to staff at the embassy, which was the request from Quito to Assange that was made in 2019 after his 7-year stay to move out of its premises.
He complied, and was put into a police vehicle that saw the start of an equal length of time in the maximum security wing of the Belmarsh prison, which is located in the capital of the UK. As happens in news cycles, after a while the tabloids and subsequently the rest of the media moved on to other subjects. In 2022, Stella Devant and Julian Assange, who had met in the prison where he was being kept, knew they were in love
with each other, and got married. A lawyer with a penchant for taking up cases involving human rights, Stella devoted much of her attention to what appeared to be an impossible task, securing the release of her husband. She made herself available for comment to whoever in the media or in the rest of civil society continued to take an interest in the fate of the jailed WikiLeaks founder.
Across the world, individuals unhappy at the way in which the incarceration of Assange took place continued pointing to the implications to human rights and press freedom of the Assange incarceration. Over the years, their number fell, but none of this daunted Stella Assange, who continued her quest for justice to her husband. Given her background, Stella would have taken up for campaigning the Assange case anyway, but her efforts got supercharged after meeting Julian and later marrying the editor who had revealed on WikiLeaks the entirety of the information given to him by Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning.
The low level member of the military had been given access to classified, highly sensitive, information. Given the oath of secrecy that Chelsea Manning as a soldier was expected to obey, it was no surprise when she was imprisoned in 2010. The reason was her transfer through encrypted online channels of as many as 750,000 classified documents relating to US military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the melee that had become commonplace in both countries after the US military interventions there in 2003 and 2001 respectively, some of the actions taken by the soldiers resulted in the deaths of innocent civilians.
As a consequence of such combat errors, rising local hostility to US soldiers on the part of local inhabitants resulted in a boost to insurgencies taking place there. It is unclear whether Manning was ever on field duty facing the risk of hostile fire, for her work in 2010 consisted of sifting through intelligence data for onward transmission. Close to 750,000 bytes of sensitive information were passed on by her in 2010 to WikiLeaks, which carried them without any redactions for almost a year.
Inputs such as the sources from whom information was collected ought to have been redacted or removed by WikiLeaks from the published content, for the exposure of such sources may have resulted in the deaths of many of them at the hands of those they had informed on, groups such as members of the Taliban or those Iraqi insurgent groups fighting the US military. Emotional at finding out by so many innocent civilian deaths caused by the military, Chelsea Manning had passed on the complete information available to her. She confided in a friend as to what she had done, and he, as he was legally bound to do, informed on her to higher authorities.
Manning was jailed shortly thereafter. In 2013, she changed her sexual identity from male to female while in prison, and in 2017, was pardoned by President Barack Obama. It needs to be mentioned that by carelessly leaving behind in Kabul details of the sources of information to the US, several were later put to death after the Taliban retook the country in 2021. No one in the US has yet gone to jail for a lapse that resulted in so many Afghans who had cooperated with the US being killed or imprisoned.
Where Julian Assange is concerned, it was probably two politicians, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia and the likely next Prime Minister of the UK, Keir Starmer, who were almost as responsible as the international backers of freedom for Assange led by his wife who prompted the US Justice Department to arrange a plea deal for Assange, which he accepted. Albanese publicly pressed the US for the release of Assange, while the worry in the US was that once he became Prime Minister of the UK, as seems almost certain, Keir Starmer would not agree to extradite Assange to the US.
Under the terms of the deal, Assange entered a “Guilty” plea on a single charge out of the many that were brought under him by the Espionage Act. Assange was not a spy, but a journalist carrying reports based on information given to him by a US soldier. He was not a US citizen but an Australian.
As US Presidential contender RFK Jr said soon after Assange was freed, his case has set a precedent enabling the US government to prosecute any journalist in any country who is involved in the dissemination of data given to her or him by outside sources which are deemed to be classified by the US government. Implications of such a broad authority are grave where press freedom is concerned. It may be added that the government of another superpower, China, had already given itself the same authority. Clearly, free speech is at risk of becoming injurious to health.
Five countries in the region — Myanmar, China, North Korea and Vietnam — are among the world’s 10 most dangerous countries for media professionals in the 2024 rankings…reports Asian Lite News
China is among the world’s 10 most dangerous countries for media professionals in the 2024 rankings, Voice of America (VOA) reported.
Global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said that press freedom in Asia continues to see a decline, with 26 out of 31 countries falling on its annual index.
According to the group’s latest press freedom index, Asia is the second-most difficult region for practicing journalism.
Reportedly, five countries in the region — Myanmar, China, North Korea and Vietnam — are among the world’s 10 most dangerous countries for media professionals in the 2024 rankings, VOA reported.
Moreover, none of the countries in the Asia-Pacific region are in the top 15 ranking for press freedom.
Three of the world’s remaining communist governments, China, North Korea and Vietnam, have long been near the bottom of RSF’s press freedom index ranking of 180 countries.
This year, China was ranked 172, Vietnam 174 and North Korea 177, according to VOA.
Overall, these countries and territories that have shown a drop in press freedom in recent years, contributing to East Asia becoming a difficult place for media to operate.
Additionally, Hong Kong was once a model for press freedom in the Asia region, but the city’s ranking recently dropped from 80 to 148 following political unrest and new laws that affect media freedoms.
Since Beijing’s move to impose national security law in 2020, at least a dozen media outlets have closed.
Beijing said that the law has been necessary to stabilize the city following mass political unrest in 2019, reported VOA.
Aleksandra Bielakowska, an advocacy officer at RSF, emphasised that Hong Kong’s media freedoms still haven’t improved.
“The worst for Hong Kong is the political and legal factors. Hong Kong’s position is very low; the situation remains very difficult,” she said.
UNGA president invokes Gandhi
Invoking Mahatma Gandhi’s statement that “freedom of the press is a precious privilege that no country can forego”, General Assembly President Dennis Francis has called for reaffirming commitments “to protecting journalists and media workers worldwide”.
After posting the comment on the social media X on World Press Freedom Day, Friday, Francis issued a joint statement with Presidents Simona Mirela Miculescu of the UNESCO General Conference, Paula Narváez of the UN Economic and Social Council, and Omar Zneiber of the Human Rights Council, focusing on journalists covering the environment.
“We advocate for the strengthening of policies that promote free, independent, and pluralistic media, thereby fostering a vibrant and robust public sphere, a pillar of peaceful, just, inclusive, sustainable, and prosperous societies,” they said.
“We also recognise the role of journalists and media workers, including women, in raising public awareness about climate change, environmental and disaster issues,” they said.
According to Francis’s Spokesperson Monica Grayely, the World Press Freedom Day this year “is dedicated to the importance of journalism and freedom of expression in the context of the current global environmental crisis”.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a message, “The world is going through an unprecedented environmental emergency which poses an existential threat to this and future generations.”
“People need to know about this – and journalists and media workers have a key role in informing and educating them,” he said.
He said, “It is no surprise that some powerful people, companies and institutions will stop at nothing to prevent environmental journalists from doing their jobs. Media freedom is under siege. And environmental journalism is an increasingly dangerous profession.”
UNESCO reported that in the past 15 years, there have been about 750 attacks on journalists and news outlets reporting on environmental issues.
Guterres said that other journalists are also facing risks.
“Around the world, media workers are risking their lives trying to bring us news on everything from war to democracy,” he said.
“I am shocked and appalled by the high number of journalists killed in Israeli military operations in Gaza,” he said.
He said, “I call on governments, the private sector and civil society to join us in reaffirming our commitment to safeguarding press freedom and the rights of journalists and media professionals around the world.” (ANI/IANS)
Chinese media revoke entries from S. Asian journalism awards
A Chinese media organisation, Caixin Media, is distancing itself from participating in Asia’s high-profile journalism award, Nikkei Asia reported.
According to the same news report, this move is being initiated by the Chinese media organisation due to rising domestic pressure on those seen to be cooperating with foreign entities.
While quoting senior members Nikkei Asia report mentioned that Caixin Media, which won the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) awards for five straight years from 2014 to 2018, has stopped submitting entries in recent years “for obvious reasons,” two senior staff members at the company told. “We cannot submit, even if we get invitations from overseas organizations, we just cannot participate,” said one of them.
SOPA was founded in Hong Kong as a not-for-profit organisation in 1982, aiming to champion the best journalism practices in the Asia-Pacific region. Its members include Bloomberg, The New York Times, and several Taiwanese media outlets. State media China Daily used to be a member too.
Similarly, Shanghai-based Sixth Tone, launched by The Paper, a digital news outlet run by the state-owned Shanghai United Media Group in 2016, also did not submit any entries this year.
Both The Paper and Sixth Tone dropped out of SOPA membership this year as well. The change follows a management overhaul late last year when Shanghai United Media Group set up a Shanghai Global News Network in October. Sixth Tone has since been a part of the network and is no longer under the supervision of The Paper, a senior executive from Shanghai United Media Group told Nikkei.
In reference to another media organisation ‘The World of Chinese’ dropping out Nikkei Asia quoted local sources claiming that “In the current political atmosphere, participating in overseas awards certainly carries political risks. I understand the choice made by the Chinese media, as survival is more important,” said one prominent journalism professor in Hong Kong, who asked not to be named.
Furthermore, the professor also claimed that “there are not many Chinese-language entries in SOPA already. If more Chinese language media drop out of the awards, it may have some impact on the authority of SOPA itself.” However, the SOPA did not comment when asked for a comment by Nikkei Asia.
The same report claimed that, Chinese media organisations Caixin and Sixth Tone have come under serious scrutiny from nationalists for their sometimes critical reporting of Beijing. Moreover, Caixin’s investigative reporting has been repeatedly attacked by nationalists for “handing a knife” — a Chinese idiom referring to providing someone with weapons to fuel criticism of another party — to the West to “smear China.”
Sixt Tone on the other hand, in several of its reports reviewing the oppressive Zero-COVID measures, used words like “baby bust,” “housing crisis,” “gender violence,” and “COVID” which highlighted a gloomy picture of the country. The project triggered a backlash from nationalists, who attacked the outlet for “frequently winning the West-acknowledged international awards such as SOPA” with “a clear Western filter that smears China.”
“The current situation is that submission for international awards like SOPA is not allowed from above, and those below are also scared to submit” a senior executive of Sixth Tone stated. He also informed Nikkei Asia that after the attack by nationalists on their outlet Shanghai, the authorities asked to write self-reflections.
Luwei Rose Luqiu, an associate professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, said Chinese media’s distance from SOPA indicates a further tightening of press freedom in the country, to the point where even the space for Chinese English media, which used to be relatively lenient and aimed to align with international peers, is narrowing, the report mentioned. “However, for Chinese media, whether to participate in SOPA has little impact because such awards do not affect their readership,” she added. (ANI)
General Assembly President Dennis Francis has called for reaffirming commitments “to protecting journalists and media workers worldwide”.
Invoking Mahatma Gandhi’s statement that “freedom of the press is a precious privilege that no country can forego”, General Assembly President Dennis Francis has called for reaffirming commitments “to protecting journalists and media workers worldwide”.
After posting the comment on the social media X on World Press Freedom Day, Friday, Francis issued a joint statement with Presidents Simona Mirela Miculescu of the UNESCO General Conference, Paula Narváez of the UN Economic and Social Council, and Omar Zneiber of the Human Rights Council, focusing on journalists covering the environment.
“We advocate for the strengthening of policies that promote free, independent, and pluralistic media, thereby fostering a vibrant and robust public sphere, a pillar of peaceful, just, inclusive, sustainable, and prosperous societies,” they said.
“We also recognise the role of journalists and media workers, including women, in raising public awareness about climate change, environmental and disaster issues,” they said.
According to Francis’s Spokesperson Monica Grayely, the World Press Freedom Day this year “is dedicated to the importance of journalism and freedom of expression in the context of the current global environmental crisis”.
In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, 'freedom of the press is a precious privilege that no country can forego.'
On #WorldPressFreedomDay, let's reaffirm our commitment to protecting journalists and media workers worldwide.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a message, “The world is going through an unprecedented environmental emergency which poses an existential threat to this and future generations.”
“People need to know about this – and journalists and media workers have a key role in informing and educating them,” he said.
He said, “It is no surprise that some powerful people, companies and institutions will stop at nothing to prevent environmental journalists from doing their jobs. Media freedom is under siege. And environmental journalism is an increasingly dangerous profession.”
UNESCO reported that in the past 15 years, there have been about 750 attacks on journalists and news outlets reporting on environmental issues.
Guterres said that other journalists are also facing risks.
“Around the world, media workers are risking their lives trying to bring us news on everything from war to democracy,” he said.
“I am shocked and appalled by the high number of journalists killed in Israeli military operations in Gaza,” he said.
He said, “I call on governments, the private sector and civil society to join us in reaffirming our commitment to safeguarding press freedom and the rights of journalists and media professionals around the world.”
Officials shared that “any future attempts to spread misleading information or disrupt societal harmony will be met with stringent legal consequences….reports Asian Lite News
In light of the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, authorities have intensified social media monitoring to safeguard public peace and ensure citizens’ safety.
The Cyber Crime Social Media Monitoring Cell in Gujarat, operating under the guidance of the Crime Branch and Cyber Crime Branch, remains vigilant on platforms like Facebook, officials shared on Tuesday.
The Ahmedabad Police’s Cyber Crime Branch on Tuesday arrested two individuals who had circulated a manipulated video of Home Minister Amit Shah on Facebook.
Dr. Lavina Sinha, Deputy Commissioner of Police for Cyber Crime, announced that the suspects, identified as Satish Vansola of Palanpur and Rahul Bhai Bariya of Limakheda, Dahod, were detained for their involvement in spreading the doctored footage.
Both are linked to political parties and allegedly shared the video without confirming its authenticity.
On April 27 an incident involving disseminating a doctored video aimed at sowing discord was promptly addressed.
The video, falsely titled ‘BEF INDIA TU SAUDI ARAB EXPORT,’ depicted cow containers and was posted to incite communal unrest and tarnish reputations.
The Cyber Crime cell has registered a case against the individual responsible for this inflammatory content, highlighting the government’s commitment to maintaining harmony and legality during the election period.
Officials shared that “any future attempts to spread misleading information or disrupt societal harmony will be met with stringent legal consequences. This measure is a part of a broader strategy to prevent the misuse of digital platforms and protect the integrity of the electoral process.
Home Minister’s doctored video
The investigators are yet to receive any response from social media giants X (formerly Twitter) and Meta in connection with a doctored video of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, a source in the Delhi Police’s Special Cell told IANS on Tuesday.
Three persons have been arrested by the police for circulating the fake video so far, two in Gujarat and one in Assam.
“We are trying to trace the origin of the doctored video. A reply from the social media giants is of utmost importance in the case. X, meanwhile, has deleted all the morphed videos from its platform,” said a senior Delhi Police officer privy to the probe.
After registering an FIR, the Special Cell’s IFSO unit, which has been tasked to crack the case, sent a letter to the X seeking details.
Summonses have been issued under Sections 91 and 160 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), calling individuals to participate in the probe and provide relevant documents and electronic devices as evidence.
Some sections invoked by the police in the FIR classify the offence as non-bailable.
Over 16 persons, including political leaders, from seven states have been summoned by the Delhi Police in connection with the case.
The Special Cell has also sent teams to Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Nagaland, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Madhya Pradesh as a part of the probe.
On Monday, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy along with four Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) members — Shiva Kumar Ambala, Asma Tasleem, Satish Manne, and Naveen Pettem — were summoned to appear before the Delhi Police on May 1.
The move followed after the Delhi Police on Sunday registered an FIR after two complaints were received by the police, one from the BJP and another from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
The controversy erupted after a doctored video surfaced on social media showing Home Minister Amit Shah making statements suggesting the BJP’s intention to annul the reservation provisions for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
It is the latest effort to impose a ban on TikTok over concerns about potential national security threats posed by ByteDance….reports Asian Lite News
A bipartisan bill introduced by lawmakers in the US House will force China-based ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, to divest the shortform video app or face a ban on the platform in the United States, The Hill reported.
US Representatives – Mike Gallagher and Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top lawmakers on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, introduced the bill on Tuesday. It is the latest effort to impose a ban on TikTok over concerns about potential national security threats posed by ByteDance.
The “Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” defines ByteDance and TikTok as foreign adversary controlled applications. The bill also creates a broader framework that would enable the US President to designate other foreign adversary controlled applications.
On Tuesday, the US House Energy and Commerce Committee said it will consider the bill at a Thursday markup, according to The Hill report.
In a statement on Tuesday, US Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chair of Energy and Commerce panel, said, “I commend Select Committee on the CCP Chair Mike Gallagher and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi for their leadership on this bipartisan bill and look forward to advancing the bill this week.”
Under the scope of the bill, foreign adversaries include China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. The bill will give more than five months to ByteDance after the law goes into effect to divest TikTok. If ByteDance does not divest from TikTok, it would become illegal to distribute it through an app store or web hosting platform in the US.
The bill has over 12 bipartisan sponsors, according to a committee aide. The aid, however, did not mention the details regarding the specific sponsors, according to The Hill report.
Gallager and Krishnamoorhti’s proposal tries to avert running into concerns that emerged as roadblocks to other bills, on the basis of description of the committee aides’. However, there are still concerns with banning the app due to its popularity with US users and concerns based on the loopholes users could use to gain access to TikTok even if it were effectively banned.
Speaking to The Hill, TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek called the bill an “outright ban” of TikTok. He stressed that this legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans.
“This bill is an outright ban of TikTok, no matter how much the authors try to disguise it. This legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs,” The Hill quoted Alex Haurek as saying.
In 2023, a Republican backed bill tried to impose an outright ban on TikTok. However, the ban faced a pushback from Democratic lawmakers who stressed that the effort was rushed and could hinder free speech rights. (ANI)
In early April, the company will kill Facebook News, a dedicated tab for news content, in the US and Australia….reports Asian Lite News
Meta has announced not to enter into new commercial deals for traditional news content in Australia, France and Germany, and will not offer new Facebook products specifically for news publishers in the future.
In early April, the company will kill Facebook News, a dedicated tab for news content, in the US and Australia.
Facebook News was deprecated in the UK, France and Germany last year.
“People will still be able to view news on Facebook in feed in these countries, and publishers will continue to have access to their Facebook accounts and Pages, where they can post their news article links and content,” the company said in a statement.
This update does not impact the existing agreements the company has in relation to Facebook News with news publishers in Australia, France and Germany until they expire.
“This is part of an ongoing effort to better align our investments to our products and services people value the most,” Meta said.
The number of people using Facebook News in Australia and the US has dropped by over 80 per cent last year.
“As we previously shared in 2023, news makes up less than 3 per cent of what people around the world see in their Facebook feed, and is a small part of the Facebook experience for the vast majority of people,” said the company.
News organisations can still leverage products like Reels and ads system to reach broader audiences and drive people to their website, “where they keep 100 per cent of the revenue derived from outbound links on Facebook”.’
The Supreme Court bench was hearing a plea filed by the Indian Medical Association seeking action against Patanjali….reports Asian Lite News
The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued contempt notice to Patanjali Ayurved’s Managing Director Acharya Balakrishna over continued publication of misleading advertisements.
Observing that Patanjali has, prima facie, violated the undertaking given to the apex court in November last year, a bench headed by Justice Hima Kohli asked the ayurvedic company to not issue any misleading advertisement or statement till the next date of listing.
The bench, also comprising Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah, was hearing a plea filed by the Indian Medical Association seeking action against Patanjali.
The matter will be heard next on March 19.
Patanjali had earlier assured the top court that it will not make any causal statements claiming medicinal efficacy of its product or advertise or brand them in violation of law. It also undertook that the company will not release any statement against any system of medicine to the media in any form.
Multiple FIRs were filed against yoga guru and Patanjali founder Baba Ramdev across several states over his controversial comments against allopathic treatment of Covid-19. In a video, Ramdev had said: “More people have died due to allopathic medicines than due to lack of medical oxygen or shortage of beds.”
He withdrew his comments the next day after receiving a strongly-worded letter from then Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, who termed his remarks as “inappropriate”.
Earlier this month, the Delhi High Court has directed the committee, constituted by the Union Ayush Ministry, to provide recommendations on establishing criteria for categorising raw materials used in drug production into vegetarian, non-vegetarian, or other categories.
The directive came in response to a plea filed by lawyer Yatin Sharma, alleging that Patanjali’s product “Divya Manjan” contains non-vegetarian ingredients despite being labeled as vegetarian.
Justice Subramonium Prasad directed the Committee, formed by the Ayurvedic, Siddha, and Unani Drugs Technical Advisory Board (ASUDTAB), to submit its recommendations within 10 weeks.
Sharma accused Patanjali of misleading the public and sought action against the company for allegedly hurting religious sentiments and deceiving customers. He had filed a complaint with the Ayush Ministry last July, prompting the Ministry’s response stating that there were no provisions for indicating non-vegetarian ingredients in products under the labelling rules.
The Ministry informed that ASUDTAB recommended forming a committee to determine criteria for categorising raw materials used in drugs, taking into account various religious, ethical, and regional considerations.
The high court disposed of Sharma’s plea, citing the Ministry’s communication regarding the Committee’s formation. It expects the Committee to deliver its recommendations within the specified timeframe. The court said: “A perusal of the aforesaid communication dated 01.08.2023 shows that a Committee has been constituted to determine the criteria by which raw materials used in the production of drugs can be categorised into veg, non- veg or more categories,” the court said.
“In view of the above, it is expected that the Committee, so constituted, shall give its recommendations within a period of 10 weeks from today.”
‘Article 21 is the Soul of Our Constitution’
The Supreme Court emphasised the paramount importance of a citizen’s liberty, stressing that delays in addressing matters related to it would deprive individuals of their fundamental rights under Article 21 of the Constitution.
Referring to Article 21 as the “soul” of the Constitution, the apex court expressed concern over instances in the Bombay High Court where bail or anticipatory bail applications were not promptly addressed.
Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta, in their February 16 order, urged the chief justice of the Bombay High Court to ensure expeditious handling of such matters by judges.
Emphasizing the significance of Article 21, the bench cautioned against delaying decisions related to citizens’ liberty, emphasizing that such delays could infringe upon their constitutional rights.
The bench instructed the apex court’s registrar to convey the order to the high court’s registrar for further action, particularly directing the high court’s chief justice to take note of the directive.
This directive came during the hearing of a case where an accused, who had been in jail for around seven-and-a-half years, challenged the disposal of his bail application by the Bombay High Court.
The Supreme Court, on January 29, overturned the high court’s previous order and instructed it to address the matter promptly, leading to the accused being granted bail on February 12.
Anurag Thakur said the revised policy will ensure growth of the sector and financial sustainability of Community Radio Stations (CRSs)…reports Asian Lite News
On the occasion of World Radio Day, Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Anurag Thakur on Tuesday released the revised policy guidelines for setting up community radio stations in the country.
The roadmap for the revised policy on community radio was unveiled during the regional Community Radio Sammelan (South) at Anna University, commemorating 20 years of Community Radio in India.
Speaking on the occasion, Anurag Thakur said the revised policy will ensure growth of the sector and financial sustainability of Community Radio Stations (CRSs)
Highlighting the importance of community radio, the minister said, “Community Radio Stations offer a platform where content is disseminated in localised dialects and regional languages. Local, context specific issues are raised and discussed in these stations in local idioms.
“The Government is committed to its mantra of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas and Sabka Prayas’. It is important to realise the importance of community radio in this direction.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his ‘Mann ki Baat’ has shown through personal example how important the radio medium is, in both speaking to and listening to the public. Each CRS is a reflection of the local model that has been built over the years and the experiential learnings that have been collected and shared.”
L. Murugan, Minister of State (MoS) for I&B, said, “Community Radio is a pioneering concept and provides a platform to unheard voices from the community. These stations are one of the best ways to reach out intimately and directly to the people as these stations create locally relevant programmes useful to the community. There cannot be a better way of reaching out to the community than through the relatively inexpensive medium of community radio stations.”
The two-day long Radio Sammelan for Southern Community Radio Stations (CRS) also marked completion of 20 years of Community Radio in India. The Sammelan gave an opportunity for capacity building to the CRSs.
For the uninitiated, the Community Radio Stations are low-power radio stations, meant to be operated by local communities. India’s first Community Radio was inaugurated in 2004 on the Anna University campus.
Presently, there are a total of 481 CRSs in the country. In the last two years, more than 133 CRSs have become operational.
