The Congress has lashed out at the Central government for promoting a ‘lame duck portal’ that claims to identify fake news.
The Congress has lashed out at the Central government for promoting a ‘lame duck portal’ that claims to identify fake news.
"Fascism reaches its ‘nadir’ as a shaky Modi Govt, caught in its web of lies, seeks to muzzle all independent voices in media through fallacious rules! Will the 13 Union Ministers answer for the lame duck portal tarnishing mainstream media? (sic)," tweeted party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala
Earlier, several cabinet ministers, including I&B minister Smriti Irani and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal have tweeted a link to a website which claims to have busted “four major fake news stories.” Seven of the ministers added the same comment: “Raise your voice against the fake news.”
According to an investigation conducted by the Indian Express, the website, http://www.thetruepicture.in was registered last year.
“It shares its landline telephone number with BlueKraft Digital Foundation, which is the “technology and knowledge” partner to Exam Warriors, the latest book authored by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help children fight exam stress,” the report added.
The website had claimed to have busted four fake stories, including the one from Gujarat where a Dalit youth was killed by a mob allegedly for riding a horse.
On the killing of a Dalit man in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, The True Picture said, “The incident of a 21-year-old Dalit youth being hacked to death on Thursday night in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar was a reprehensible act that deserves the strictest condemnation. But the media needed to apply its mind before presenting it as a Dalit versus upper caste issue.”
However, the Indian Express says it has a copy of the FIR following the complaint by the victim’s father. In the FIR, the father says the accused to threaten the victim with dire consequences unless he sold the horse. Accused number 1 would say, “Sell it or I will kill you, thus threaten him, and accused number 2 would also threaten to kill him, and all the accused in collusion with each other wounded the victim with sharp weapons killing him,” the FIR added.
Earlier on Monday, the Centre made amendments to the Guidelines for Accreditation of Journalists in order to clamp down on “fake news”, thereby suspending accreditation of journalists from the time any complaint is registered.
Once registered, the case will be referred to the Press Council of India (PCI) for the print media and to News Broadcasters Association (NBA) in case of electronic media. “Determination is expected to be completed within 15 days by these regulating agencies. Once the complaint is registered for determination of fake news, the correspondent/journalist whoever created and/or propagated the fake news will, if accredited, have the accreditation suspended till such time the determination regarding the fake news is made by the regulating agencies mentioned above,” a government release stated.
If found guilty, the release said, accreditation of the said journalist will be suspended for a period of 6 months in the first violation, for one year in the case of a second violation and in the event of third violation, it will be cancelled permanently.
The release also added that while examining the requests for accreditation, the regulatory agencies will examine whether the ‘Norms of Journalistic Conduct’ and ‘Code of Ethics and Broadcasting Standards’ prescribed by the PCI and NBA are adhered to by the journalists.
The Press Club of India has called for an emergency meeting in this regard in their premises on Tuesday to discuss the matter.
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