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A group of 21 news publishers, including companies owned by billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, has challenged India\u2019s privacy \u200blaw in court, arguing it would trample investigative work and let New Delhi identify journalists\u2019 sources, documents show.<\/strong><\/p>\n Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s government last year announced \u200cimplementation of a privacy law to protect digital personal data of users, raising compliance requirements for platforms like Meta and Google. The publishers have said that since media outlets were not exempt, the law was an invasion of press freedom.<\/p>\n Media companies received assurances in an August meeting with the government that the law would protect press freedom, but not having a written carve-out for journalists like in the European Union, Singapore and Britain was alarming, India\u2019s Digital News \u200bPublishers Association (DNPA) said in a confidential filing at the Supreme Court, reviewed by Reuters.<\/p>\n The October 6 lawsuit, being reported for the first time and due to be \u200bheard on Tuesday, is the most high-profile challenge to Modi\u2019s privacy law. Until now, only free speech activists and a group of smaller \u2060news outlets had challenged it.<\/p>\n It also marks an unusual challenge to the government from businesses headed by Ambani and Adani, who opposition parties allege are close to Modi and get \u200bfavourable treatment \u2013 charges the businesses and the government vehemently deny.<\/p>\n DNPA and the media groups did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters, and neither did India\u2019s information technology ministry.<\/p>\n The publishers \u200bare demanding that most of the law\u2019s contentious provisions, which kick in from May 2027, should be quashed. They are arguing the law could force a journalist to get prior consent from a person they want to investigate and force publishers to erase stories. They also say powers granted by the law to demand information could expose reporters\u2019 sources.<\/p>\n The law would \u201crender investigative journalism a benign and neutered recorder of events,\u201d \u200bthe 698-page filing said. The provisions \u201cconstitute pre-censorship which is anathema to any democracy worth its name\u201d.<\/p>\n The lawsuit comes amid accusations of declining press freedom in India since Modi took office \u200bin 2014. Critics say many mainstream media outlets have not done enough to scrutinise Modi\u2019s government.<\/p>\n India\u2019s ranking in Reporters Without Borders\u2019 World Press Freedom Index fell to 157th out of 180 countries this year, \u200cfrom 140th in \u20602014 \u2013 but the government rejects the rankings.<\/p>\n Modi\u2019s government says it respects press freedom and says India, which has a \u201cvibrant press and media ecosystem\u201d of hundreds of newspapers and TV channels, does not need validation from foreign bodies.<\/p>\n News \u200bpublishers are concerned that \u2060a federal authority created under the law can impose fines for non-compliance, and grants powers to New Delhi to block access to any information in the \u201cinterests of the general public\u201d, which would curtail press freedom, DNPA said.<\/p>\n In an August letter to the government attached to the lawsuit, the group said India \u201chas chosen to grant broad exemptions to the state, while failing to extend any corresponding \u2060protection to \u200bthe press\u201d. No response was cited.<\/p>\n From next year, the law will also let New Delhi order any organization \u200bhandling personal data \u201cto furnish such information as it may call for\u201d, putting newsrooms at risk of having to divulge sources, the filing said.<\/p>\n It can also deter whistleblowers from sharing information on corruption, corporate wrongdoing or electoral malpractice with \u200breporters, the DNPA argued.<\/p>\n The \u201cnakedly unguided\u201d provision must be quashed, the DNPA said, adding that the power \u201ccan extend to privileged communications in possession of a reporter or the informant.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nFEAR OF SOURCES AT RISK<\/strong><\/h3>\n