The Government of India has used Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code, a 152-year-old colonial era law, to arrest and intimidate critical and dissenting voices. Journalists, academics, environmental activists, and even college students have been accused of the serious offence of sedition. As the Union and state governments misused the law, Section 124A, widely known as the “sedition law,” made it to the headlines of leading newspapers and the pros and cons of the law were widely debated in the national media.
From time to time, the discussion in the national media seemed to ebb. But it picked up again. Last year, May 2021, the Andhra Pradesh police filed FIRs against against two Telugu news channels for airing “seditious content.” The news channels–TV5 News and ABN Andhra Jyoti–have filed writ petitions demanding that the FIRs be retracted and contempt of court be brought against the Andhra Pradesh police for disregarding the Supreme Court’s earlier direction against coercive action for airing COVID-related issues.
The Supreme Court opined that, “it is time to define the limits of sedition” and sections of the Indian Penal Code that deal with sedition require detailed interpretation and examination– particularly in context of media freedom. On 31 May 2021, the bench comprising of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud, L. Nageswara Rao and S. Ravindra Bhat, was clear in its conviction when it stated that the FIRs against the news channels seemed to be an attempt to “muzzle media freedom.”
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