Centre asks states, UTs to set up mechanism to prevent fake news
United News of India
New Delhi, Apr 2: Now circulating fake or unverified news on COVID-19 or its impacts on any of social media or any news platforms will attract penalty and imprisonment up to one year under Disaster Management Act, 2005.
The Centre has already issued instructions that apart from the Government, no citizen is allowed to post or forward update on COVID19 and under the DM Act, circulating unverified or false news leading to panic is prohibited.
Under Section 54 of the Disaster Management Act, clearly says, “Whoever makes or circulates a false alarm or warning as to disaster or its severity or magnitude, leading to panic, shall on conviction, be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to one year or with fine”.
The Government organization ‘Press Information Bureau’ has already come up with dedicated pages for COVID19 such as for COVID19 tweet: https://pib.gov.in/COVID19tweets.aspx.
Multilingual Webpage for PIB Press Releases on COVID19: https://pib.gov.in/newsite/allrelcoronavirus.aspx,
PIB Fact Check: https://pib.gov.in/factcheck.aspx and PIB’s Special Webpage on COVID19:
https://pib.gov.in/newsite/chronavirus.aspx?docid=667
Union Home Ministry has already asked all States and Union Territories to set up a mechanism to prevent fake new on the COVID19 outbreak and panic creation.
Centre asks states, UTs to set up mechanism to prevent fake news on COVID-19
Meanwhile, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked all states and Union Territories to set up a mechanism to prevent fake new on the COVID-19 outbreak and panic creation.
In a letter written to all Chief Secretaries of States and Administrators of Union Territories on Wednesday, the Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla asked them to take effective measures to fight Fake News.
‘It has been communicated that the Centre is creating a web-portal for people to verify facts and unverified news promptly. States and UTs have been requested to create a similar mechanism at their level for issues relating to them’, Bhalla said.
The Centre move come after the Supreme Court took took serious note of the panic created by Fake News leading to mass movement of migrant labourers. This has lead to untold suffering to these people, the Court observed.
The Apex Court had also made observations and directions to ensure provision of basic amenities such as food, medicines in line with National Disaster Management Authority(NDMA),MHA directives and other welfare activities in relief shelters for migrant labourers.
The states and UTs have been communicated to comply with the Directives, Advisories, Orders issued by Central Government in letter and spirit, for containment of spread of COVID-19 in the country.
