India drops plan to punish journos
US blacklists MML
NEW DELHI, April 3, (Agencies): Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday reversed an order to punish journalists found guilty of reporting “fake news”, after an outcry over a perceived government crackdown on the press.
The media sanctions, issued late Monday, stated that the government would withdraw the official accreditation of any journalist responsible for repeated reporting of “fake news”.
India is the latest government to act against what it calls “fake news”. Malaysia is passing a law allowing for up to six years in jail for publishing allegedly misleading information.
The government said it needed to curb the spread of misinformation in the media. But Modi’s office rescinded the directive just hours later amid allegations India’s vibrant press was being muzzled.
“PIB (Press Information Bureau) Press release titled ‘Guidelines for Accreditation of Journalists amended to regulate Fake News’ issued on 02 April 2018 stands withdrawn,” the information and broadcasting ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
Under the withdrawn guidelines from the ministry, a first offence would have led to a six-month suspension of government accreditation.
A second case would attract a year’s suspension followed by a permanent withdrawal for a third offence.
About 2,000 journalists with leading Indian media have a Press Information Bureau card from the information ministry, which eases access to government departments and ministries.
The Indian Express newspaper in a front-page headline on Tuesday said, “In the name of fake news, govt frames rules to blacklist journalists.” “Move comes in election year,” it added. Several journalists and activists, while acknowledging the problem of fake news, criticised the government intervention.
Modi
Pak ‘MML’ on US terror list:
The United States has placed a Pakistani political group called the Milli Muslim League (MML) on its list of foreign terrorist organisations, saying it was merely an alias for a militant group blamed for a bloody 2008 attack in India.
The Milli Muslim League is controlled by Islamist leader Hafiz Saeed, who has a $10 million US bounty on his head. The group shot to prominence after fielding a candidate in a September 2017 by-election to fill a seat vacated by deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Saeed is the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), or Army of the Pure, which is also on the US terrorist list and blamed by the United States and India for a four-day militant attack on the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008 in which 166 people were killed.
Saeed has repeatedly denied involvement in the attack.
The US State Department said the Milli Muslim League alias had been added to the LeT’s designations as a terrorist group.
“These designations seek to deny LeT the resources it needs to plan and carry out further terrorist attacks,” the State Department said in a statement.
“Make no mistake: whatever LeT chooses to call itself, it remains a violent terrorist group. The United States supports all efforts to ensure that LeT does not have a political voice until it gives up violence as a tool of influence,” it added.
Prof suspended for defaming Hasina’s dad:
Bangladesh’s most prestigious university has suspended a professor for writing a column critical of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s father, as the ruling party cracks down on dissent in a tense election year.
Morshed Hasan Khan was “suspended until further notice” from Dhaka University, its vice-chancellor said Tuesday, after the student wing of the Awami League staged angry rallies on campus.
University head Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman said Khan defamed Bangladesh’s first post-independence president and Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in the controversial article published in a Bengali daily. The professor of marketing was also accused of “distorting the history” of Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971, the legacy of which remains contentious today.
Dhaka University is regarded as a stronghold of liberalism and secularism in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, which has been ruled by Hasina’s Awami League for more than nine years.
Hasina jailed her political rival, Khaleda Zia, in February for corruption in a move seen by critics as an attempt to remove opposition ahead of a general election slated for December.
Lanka’s PM faces confidence vote:
Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe faces a noconfidence motion on Wednesday that could go down to the wire and lead to political instability in the island nation, even if the government manages to scrape a win.
Wickremesinghe leads a national unity government in alliance with President Maithripala Sirisena’s party, which has said it would vote against the prime minister, blaming him for failing to prevent an alleged scam in the bond market.
The opposition, which swept local elections last month, aims to drive a deeper wedge within the ruling coalition with the no-confidence motion and bring forward a national election due in 2020.
“There is common consensus in the party to vote in favour of the no-confidence motion,” said Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, a minister of Sirisena’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).
UN probes ‘serious harm to civilians’:
The United Nations said Tuesday it was investigating “disturbing reports of serious harm to civilians” in an Afghan airstrike on a religious school that security sources say left dozens of children dead or wounded.
Hundreds of people were attending a graduation ceremony at the madrassa in a Taleban-controlled district in northeastern Afghanistan on Monday when Afghan Air Force helicopters struck, witnesses have told AFP.
“Human Rights team on ground establishing facts. All parties reminded of obligations to protect civilians from impact of armed conflict,” the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in a brief statement.