Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 7: Strongly condemning registration of FIR against reporter of a newspaper for exposing loopholes in the system through investigating reporting, Press Club of Jammu (PCJ) called this decision as an attempt to gag the media.
In a statement issued here, Ashwani Kumar, president, Press Club of Jammu, strongly condemned the action of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for lodging an FIR against the newspaper reporter over story on Aadhar data breach.
“Instead of plugging loopholes and taking action against the real culprits involved in leaking data, the Government agencies, unfortunately, lodged FIR against the reporter, who exposes the loopholes in the system”, the statement issued by president PCJ Ashwani Kumar mentioned.
“UIDAI’s action to have the reporter booked by the police as it is clearly meant to browbeat a journalist whose investigation on the matter was of great public interest”, Ashwani Kumar said and termed the action as a direct attack on the freedom of the press.
The newspaper report had claimed that it took just Rs 500 and 10 minutes to get an access through an “agent” to every detail of any individual submitted to the UIDAI, including name, address, postal code (PIN), photo, phone number and email.
An FIR under Indian Penal Code Sections 419 (punishment for cheating by impersonation), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) has filed against the newspaper reporter.
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