‘Intimidatory and Blatant Attack’: Editors Guild on IT ‘Survey’ at NewsClick, Newslaundry https://thewire.in/media/intimidatory-blatant-attack-editors-guild-it-survey-newsclick-newslaundry-statement
The media body has termed the trend of the government agencies harassing and intimidating independent media as "dangerous", saying it undermines our constitutional democracy.
The IT department officials claimed that the visits on September 10 were ‘surveys’ and not ‘raids’.
“It’s learnt that the IT team made clones of Sekhri’s mobile and laptop, as well as some other office machines, and no hash value was given to them. This is clearly beyond the mandate of surveys as defined under Section 133(A) of the Income Tax Act, which only allows data pertaining to the investigation to be copied, and certainly not personal and professional data of journalists,” the Editors Guild said in its statement.
The Guild said it is ‘deeply concerned’ by the indiscriminate seize of journalists’ data, adding that it could include sensitive details such as details of sources, and could violate free speech and the freedom of the press.