WATCHING BIG BROTHER

On March 23, 1782, Hicky’s Bengal Gazette shut down and founder James Augustus Hickey was arrested after he called then governor general of India ‘the miserable successor of Lord Clive’

The Bihar Press Bill passed on July 31, 1982, made the publication of ‘grossly indecent or scurrilous matters’ non-bailable

In April 2012, Rahul Gandhi’s aide Meenakshi Natarajan was to introduce a bill in Lok Sabha to gag the media on the pretext of ‘protecting national interest’. The move was dropped

On April 2, 2018, then I&B minister Smriti Irani announced that PIB accredition will be cancelled if a complaint is registered against a journalist for ‘fake news’. The decision was scrapped

In 1975, the Indira Gandhi government imposed press censorship during emergency

The Rajiv Gandhi government introduced a defamation bill against the Press in 1988. It was withdrawn

Rajasthan’s Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill of October 2017 sought to shield judges and government employees from media probes. It was later withdrawn