Media Release
Hyderabad/Chandigarh, 11 April 2025: The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) has expressed serious concern at the government’s attempt to curtail the people’s right to information in the name of protecting the right to privacy. In a statement issued on Friday IJU President K. Sreenivas Reddy and Secretary General Balwinder Singh Jammu said the changes to Right to Information (RTI) Act envisaged under Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act would effectively dilute the former, thus cutting down the empowerment of people.
The DPDP Act which has already received Presidential assent would come into force once the rules are notified. A provision in the Act alters Section 8(i)(j) of the RTI Act which allows personal information to be disclosed in public interest. The altered provision disallows even that. The DPDP Act also removes a provision in the RTI Act that stated “information which can not be denied to Parliament or a State legislature can not be denied to a person.”
The IJU leaders said that the RTI Act, as it is, has taken care of the people’s right to privacy and altering the Section 8(1)(j) would only render the law ineffective by disallowing public to access information that uncovers corruption. They termed the move retrogressive and urged the government to discard the provision in the interest of transparency in public life.
K. Sreenivas Reddy Balwinder Singh Jammu)
President Secretary-General
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