Dear Reader,
In a significant development that has the potential to transform the fate and fortunes of digital news media in the US, their lawmakers introduced the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, two weeks ago. A legislation designed to enable digital media platforms to collectively negotiate and “secure fair terms” from platforms like Google and Facebook which at the moment pay minuscule monies for content, or don’t pay at all.
The US lawmakers evocatively described the urgency to create a level playing field for media - “the moment is urgent. At a time when journalism is more important than ever, the press is facing an extinction-level event. Congress must act”. MediaNama argues that while Indian media organisations have taken up the issues of non-sharing of revenues by big platforms for using their content, the government’s strategy is unclear. The government will do well to make this US bill the lodestar to shape regulation at home, it asserts.
Siddique Kappan, the journalist from Kerala, who was arrested by the UP Police in Mathura has already spent more than 700 days in jail. Even as the Supreme Court is on the cusp of deciding his petition for bail on September 9, observers are terming the incarceration as a classic case of an “egregious miscarriage of justice, deliberate misinterpretation of India’s laws and vindictive prosecution”.
With little proof to back the Police claim, Kappan has been accused of “promoting enmity”, outraging religious feelings and “raising funds for terrorist acts”. Article 14 looks at the detention and events that followed in the courts, and how this has become a bellwether case for the country’s journalists and dissenters.
Displaced communities, people who are forced to migrate under duress – mostly due to natural disasters and armed conflict and violence - are steadily increasing in India, with an estimated 5 million disaster-induced displacements in 2019 alone. Other than being wantonly uprooted, they slip through the cracks of the public health system with disastrous results. India Development Review looks at what can be done to change this.
The Roe v. Wade judgement in the United States this July restricting American women’s right to abortion, has been a huge setback for women’s rights. In comparison, India’s Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, amended last year, has been touted as ‘forward-looking” and respecting a woman’s choice, including her privacy. The India Forum, however, argues that challenges are many, including the lack of access to abortion facilities in India.
For more stories from the grantees this week, please read on.
Warmly,
Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF
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