The Editors Guild of India and a senior journalist on Tuesday jointly moved the Supreme Court seeking a directive to the Centre to disclose information on the electronic surveillance of Indian citizens using spyware.
They have also demanded a court-monitored probe into allegations swirling around the Pegasus controversy, adding to the list of people approaching the Supreme Court on the issue.
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“The indiscriminate use of these capabilities against journalists and other democratic actors destroys freedom of speech and poisons the heart of democratic accountability,” the petition said.
The Guild and veteran journalist Mrinal Pande have challenged the constitutional validity of Section 5 of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, Rule 419A of the Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951, Section 69 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information) Rules, 2009.