{"id":63131,"date":"2019-03-07T01:36:29","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T06:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=63131"},"modified":"2019-03-07T01:36:29","modified_gmt":"2019-03-07T06:36:29","slug":"no-force-on-earth-can-make-me-or-us-reveal-the-confidential-sources-from-whom-we-obtained-defence-ministry-documents-about-the-rafale-deal-states-the-hindu-newspaper-publishing-group-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=63131","title":{"rendered":"“No Force On Earth Can Make Me Or Us Reveal the Confidential Sources From Whom We Obtained Defence Ministry Documents About the Rafale Deal” States “The Hindu” Newspaper Publishing Group Chairman N. Ram."},"content":{"rendered":"

N. Ram, Chairman of The Hindu publishing group, responded strongly to Attorney General K.K. Venugopal\u2019s argument in the Supreme Court that the Rafale deal documents were \u201cstolen\u201d and those publishing them were guilty under the Official Secrets Act.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not steal the documents from the Ministry of Defence, we got them from confidential sources and no force on earth can make me or us reveal the source of the documents, because we have given our word,\u201d said Mr. Ram. <\/p>\n

\u201cSecondly, we have published this information obtained through investigative journalism in the public interest, significant information that was withheld or suppressed despite repeated demands made in Parliament and outside. <\/p>\n

Thirdly, an unintended consequence of alleging that we have published \u2018stolen documents\u2019 has been authentication of the documents by the government itself; you need no further evidence that this is the real thing, the real deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

He asserted that \u201cwe are fully protected by Article 19(1) A of the Constitution, the fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression and also by the Right to Information Act, specifically 8(1)(i) and 8(2), which override the Official Secrets Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no question of any national security interest being compromised by it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Ram also called for democratic India to do away with the Official Secrets Act, 1923, saying, \u201cthe OSA is an obnoxious piece of colonial legislation which is anti-democratic and has rarely been used against publications in independent India. If there was espionage or something like that, it\u2019s a different matter. Here, it is material that should have gone into the public realm and \u2014 information that wants to be free \u2014 and it should have been freely available to readers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if the Attorney General\u2019s argument would have a chilling effect on investigative journalism, Mr. Ram said \u201cif it represented government policy, it would clearly have a chilling effect on journalism and investigative journalism in particular.\u201d He added, however, that any such attempt was unlikely to succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday it\u2019s not just The Hindu, but also some other independent news publications which have put out material on Rafale, although as in the Bofors investigation of the late-1980s we have the leading role. There has been an overarching fear in the media ecosystem under this government but the Indian press is now willing to do more. And the very fact that the issue has been covered in a big way shows that the blanket of silence that some would like to be imposed on this matter has been breached,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar exchanges documents with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian after signing an MoU on the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft in the presence of French President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on January 25, 2016.<\/p>\n

Mr. Ram also explained that The Hindu had exercised due diligence in its ongoing investigation and it was not as though everything that came to hand was unloaded in the public realm in the name of investigative journalism.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, during the course of our independent Rafale investigation, we had access to information on the 13 India specific enhancements but in the newspaper\u2019s judgment there was no need to publish this, because it was not strictly relevant to the investigative articles being published and also because the government was saying this technical information was highly sensitive, it may help the interests of adversaries and may cause harm. I don\u2019t accept that argument necessarily, but still we felt that there was no need to publish this technical information,\u201d he said.
\n
\nCourtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

N. Ram, Chairman of The Hindu publishing group, responded strongly to Attorney General K.K. Venugopal\u2019s argument in the Supreme Court that the Rafale deal documents were \u201cstolen\u201d and those publishing them were guilty under the Official Secrets Act. \u201cWe did not steal the documents from the Ministry of Defence, we got them from confidential sources …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘“No Force On Earth Can Make Me Or Us Reveal the Confidential Sources From Whom We Obtained Defence Ministry Documents About the Rafale Deal” States “The Hindu” Newspaper Publishing Group Chairman N. Ram.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63131"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63132,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63131\/revisions\/63132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}