![]() In January, the government prevented the broadcast of a BBC documentary that looked critically at Modi’s role in riots in Gujarat in 2002. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the deputy minister for information technology, accused Dorsey of speaking an“outright lie”. This latest ruling is part of an ongoing debate within India about freedom of speech.Įarlier this week, the former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said in an interview that the government had threatened to shut down the company and raid the homes of its employees over posts critical of the government’s handling of the 2021 farmer protests. ![]() If it’s screened and causes riots, let’s say, then it can be banned but not pre-emptively like this, purely on the basis of speculation.” “The state can only ban a documentary once it has been screened. “The state can only restrict a broadcast if it might affect the security of the nation or disrupt good relations with neighbouring countries,” he said. Gonsalves said the Allahabad court’s pre-emptive ban was illegal. “The court has said Indians have the right to hear such hostile opinions and the government has to tolerate things it might find hateful”, he said. Further, he said the supreme court had clarified numerous times that the right to free speech included the right to express opinions critical of the government. The supreme court lawyer Colin Gonsalves said that unlike films – which need to be certified before they could be publicly screened – documentaries did not need any prior approval. The ruling has dismayed free speech activists who have accused the government of systematically shrinking the space for dissent. The judges also said the government should ensure the documentary was not shown until it had acquired the “requisite certification”. ![]() “Considering the evil consequences that are likely to occur on the broadcast of the film … we are of the view that the broadcast be deferred pending consideration of the cause in the present petition,” the court said in its ruling. On this basis, Kumar argued, the documentary should not be broadcast as it would disrupt social harmony.
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