The digital diffusion of creative output seems to be making India’s Information Technology Act of 2000 work overtime.
Its Section 69A, which empowers the state to block content for national security, public order and so on, was invoked by the Centre in its takedown of Honey Trehan’s film Satluj. Rules framed in 2021 under that law for online platforms acted as the legal tool, which means a review panel must take a final call on this action.
While the digital app Zee5 dropped the movie within 48 hours of its release on the internet last Friday, many subscribers got to watch it. Set some three decades ago in strife-torn Punjab, it tells the heroic tale of someone dedicated to the truth of why so many people vanished.
Since it has a grim political context, and depicts a blurring of human rights amid a police campaign to quell a separatist insurgency, it’s a controversy stirrer. But that needn’t make it incendiary, at least not in today’s context of the state’s calm.
On the other side of this trade-off is freedom of speech. This isn’t an absolute right. Just as one must not shout ‘fire’ in a closed hall, one must not wide-cast what’s likely to put lives at risk. The rest should be fine for an adult audience.