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26 Mar, 5 tweets, 2 min read
📢EXCLUSIVE

Official documents I accessed under the RTI Act expose the role played by legacy media firms in throttling digital news media.

From the FDI cut to the draconian new IT Rules, legacy media's lobbying efforts have their footprints all over.

bit.ly/39jncE2
So what do the documents reveal?

First, they reveal how the big guns in the legacy media, including the powerful Times Group, lobbied to starve nascent digital media entities of investment to preserve their dominance.

bit.ly/39jncE2
Second, the official documents also reveal that legacy media firms & their associations lobbied the Narendra Modi govt to draft regulation that reigns in the growth of the digital media.

This fed into the govt’s eagerness to control digital news media. bit.ly/39jncE2
As @akm1410 put it so eloquently in The Morning Context's email today, "Even animals don’t turn on their own, so this is a new low for the ape." Read this to you understand the dark alleys of govt decision-making & the current crisis in the media business. bit.ly/39jncE2
Throttling of*

🤦‍♂️

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More from @DeshmaneAkshay

Akshay Deshmane Profile picture
30 Oct 20
🚨LATEST ON #EIA2020🚨

Last week, as air pollution in Delhi-NCR rightly took up all our attention, the Modi Govt quietly gave an important update to the Delhi HC about the translations of the #DraftEIA2020 notification in 22 Indian languages. Details 👇 bit.ly/2TBzLCb
In an affidavit, the environment ministry claimed it received translations of #EIA2020 in 22 Indian languages from states, but won’t publish them for public consultation as the translations can't be verified & so could cause “confusion and complications” bit.ly/2TBzLCb
As you may recall, the Delhi HC directed environment ministry on June 30 to translate the #EIA2020 in 22 Indian languages mentioned in the 8th schedule of the constitution. Details 👇 bit.ly/2HGNO6R
Read 8 tweets
Akshay Deshmane Profile picture
28 Jul 20
SCOOP: It may be public knowledge that the environment ministry bungled up public consultation for #EIAdraft2020 But when it was questioned about this, the ministry brazenly misled the Karnataka High Court. See highlights in thread, details in the story: bit.ly/3jNJ0eD
Here's the chronology: On 16 July, the Karnataka HC directed the MoEF&CC to ensure “wide publicity” for the #EIAdraft2020 more than two weeks after the Delhi HC directed the ministry to translate the law into India’s 22 local languages. Details here bit.ly/30tHiGj
The translations of the draft notification should be published on the websites of the environment ministries of the Central and state governments as well as the State Pollution Control Boards for wide public consultation, the Delhi HC judgment had said. bit.ly/2YWo4K5
Read 12 tweets
Akshay Deshmane Profile picture
15 Jul 20
🚨SCOOP🚨
Weeks after its 1k+ emails demanding withdrawal of draft #EIA2020 flooded the MoEF&CC's inboxes-& top Modi Govt officials scrutinised their text-@LetIndBreathe website was abruptly blocked by a govt controlled firm, interviews & documents reveal bit.ly/32pXfQB
.@LetIndBreathe recently claimed that #InternetCensorship is in place in India. This report reveals why such fears are expressed. The collective & its legal counsel @internetfreedom mentioned that websites of 2 more campaign organisations are blocked. bit.ly/32pXfQB
An official of the National Internet Exchange of India, a govt controlled firm that routes internet traffic within India, told me the firm has blocked LetIndia, but he didn't know about others. He didn't explain the reason for blocking. bit.ly/32pXfQB
Read 5 tweets
Akshay Deshmane Profile picture
3 Jul 20
EXCLUSIVE: The controversial new draft of India's main law for giving environment clearances—which the Modi Govt tried to push during #lockdown without proper public consultation—was designed to be a diluted version. This is how 2 ministers ensured that. bit.ly/31Ebb99
Briefly put: the specific terms of reference and objectives approved by the ministers for an expert committee working on drafting the new law for environment clearances resulted in some controversial provisions added to its draft, official documents show. bit.ly/31Ebb99
The story begins in April 2018 when Dr Harshvardhan, then environment minister, asked his officials to draft a 'structured ToR' or Terms of Reference for the Dr Satish Wate committee, which was looking at all technical aspects of implementation of EIA 2006 bit.ly/31Ebb99
Read 15 tweets
Akshay Deshmane Profile picture
25 Jun 20
Documents accessed by @HuffPostIndia reveal a blow-by-blow account of how the Modi govt is evading public scrutiny of its actions by using the #coronavirus lockdown to ram through controversial dilutions to one of India's most important environmental laws. bit.ly/2YuIiKt
The story begins on March 23 when the environment ministry first uploaded the draft EIA Notification of 2020 on its website seeking public feedback till May 22. In other words, two days before the country was to go into a #lockdown bit.ly/2YuIiKt
On April 11, the draft notification — thus far available only on the ministry website – was published in the official Gazette of India. bit.ly/2YuIiKt
Read 12 tweets
Akshay Deshmane Profile picture
4 Jun 20
<Interview> In the #COVIDー19 lockdown, we have slid back to an age where information is disclosed to citizens only on need-to-know basis by govt officials & people’s right to know as a principle is ignored, said RTI activist Venkatesh Nayak of @CHRI_INT bit.ly/2BnFYMb
Context for the statement above: Nayak was responding to questions about the recent legally binding advisory issued by the Central Information Commission to the Modi govt to release data about migrant workers who continue to remain stranded across India. bit.ly/2BnFYMb
This advisory was issued by the CIC in response to Nayak's complaint about being denied information concerning stranded migrant workers across India that he had sought through an RTI application filed in the chief labour commissioner’s office. bit.ly/2BnFYMb
Read 12 tweets

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