'While limited Internet and mobile connectivity services have begun in certain parts of the Jammu and Kashmir Union territory, residents will only be able to access 153 government-approved websites. Details of this “whitelist” – which was first announced on January 14, when Internet service providers were ordered to install the necessary firewalls – have now become public.
'The unintended consequence of the Supreme Court’s order on Internet Shutdowns in Kashmir — where it put down accountability norms for Internet shutdowns, and said that some essential websites should be accessible, is that it has given rise to the creation of the Great Indian Firewall: filters that control what users can and cannot access online.
'Historian Irfan Habib was slapped with a notice by an Aligarh Civil Court advocate for taking a jibe at the Prime Minister during a speech at the Aligarh Muslim University, calling him “illiterate”.
'The police crackdown on journalists covering the anti-CAA protests across the country has made one thing clear. The press card, a powerful tool in the hands of every journalist, offers little protection if the name on it is that of a Muslim. Dozens of journalists were hounded by the police across the country during the protests in the last few weeks, leading many journalist unions to stage a protest in the national capital on December 26. Among them the most vulnerable to violence, threats of violence and bias by police were those with a Muslim name...
'Around 6:45 pm on Friday evening, I was trying to grab a quick meal at a dhaba outside the Uttar Pradesh BJP office, waiting to hear about a press conference to be held by the UP government a few blocks away, when at least four men in plainclothes barged in. I was accompanied by Robin Verma, a local activist and friend, and two others, both journalists. The men did not identify themselves and inquired about us using strong and aggressive language. They told me they wanted to question me about something.
'India’s federal government has warned television stations not to broadcast images of protests against a new religion-based citizenship law, as it intensifies attempts to quell growing anger over what demonstrators say is an attack on the country’s secular constitution. Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants broadcasters to “abstain” from showing content that’s “against the maintenance of law and order or which promotes anti-national attitudes,” according to a Ministry of Information and Broadcasting letter tweeted by the country’s biggest media group, Times of India.
'Mohit Bharatiya, General Secretary of BJP Mumbai, issued a threat to Kunal Kamra after being offended by a tweet shared by the comedian. Kamra had shared a graphic that read: “Dear PM Modi, Media is with you, Bollywood is with you, 353 MP's are with you, all the Indian bigots are with you, corrupt criminals and rapists are with you, RSS is with you, NRI dhokla mafia is with you, but we stand rock solid against you, because the nation doesn't need you.” He captioned it, “*FIXED IT*”...
'The ABVP has found itself in a tight spot with videos of three of its office bearers allegedly threatening and assaulting students at DU over protests against the new citizenship law being circulated on social media. In a 1:27-minute video, ABVP’s Shahdara District Convenor Jitender Chaudhary is seen harassing a student from Kerala. “Do you support CAA or not? Are you in favour of it or against it?”, Chaudhary asks him, to which he says he’s not in favour of the law. Then, another man in the video tells a person who is not in the frame to “take him away”...'
'On Tuesday afternoon, I and a couple of fellow journalists drove to Srinagar’s Islamia College of Science and Commerce where we had heard a student protest was underway. We wanted to speak to the students to find out what the protests were about, whether they were related to the anti-citizenship law demonstrations that were happening across campuses in the country. Once we got there, we saw personnel of the J&K police and CRPF standing guard outside the locked gate of the college.
'On Wednesday, the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry issued an advisory to all private TV channels which asked them to desist from broadcasting content that could incite violence or cause law and order problems. The advisory comes in the wake of widespread, violent protests in the North East against the Citizenship Amendment Bill. The media advisory refers to the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act of 1995 to caution TV channels from broadcasting content which is “likely to encourage or incite violence or contains anything against maintenance of law and order”.
