Press Club of India voices concern on MeitY’s issuance of DPDP rules

The Press Club of India (PCI) is deeply anguished by the manner in which the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) notified the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act, 2023).

PCI, the largest collective of journalists, along with 22 other press bodies, representing thousands of working journalists from across the country, submitted a Joint Memorandum1 in June 2025 to MeitY in an attempt to engage with the Government of India by flagging serious lacunas in the DPDP Act, 2023, that impinge upon press freedom and directly hit Article 19 (1).

The intention of submitting the Joint Memorandum was two-fold. The first, was to engage with the government in the most constructive and democratic manner to help it come out with a model code of implementation (Rules) that did not strangle the functioning of journalists and media organisations in the world’s largest democracy.

The second, was to demonstrate that some of the sections of the DPDP Act, 2023, were riddled with serious ambiguities due to their sweeping definitions and scope. The loosely drafted sections open up numerous possibilities of weaponisation of the law with the purpose of curtailing press freedom. The Joint Memorandum provided real-world scenarios, based on the professional experiences of thousands of journalists, where the provisions of the law are potentially in conflict with their functioning.

The intention of this exercise was to provide the Government of India with a rational and coherent case for carving out exceptions for people and organisations performing journalistic duties. We at no stage asked for repealing the law. We are quite aware of the necessity of a law for protecting personal data of citizens in the digital age.

Subsequently, S. Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY, called for a meeting on July 28, 2025, with representatives of press bodies to discuss the issues raised in the Joint Memorandum. At his behest, the press bodies submitted a set of 35 questions in the form of FAQs2 on August 22,2025, further elaborating the real-world scenarios, for seeking clarification about the application of Sections 2, 5,6, 7, 10, 17, 28, 33, 36 and 37 and their sub clauses to journalistic work. The ambiguity and open-ended scope of these clauses escalates the potential for weaponisation of the law manifold.

On multiple occasions in the past, the Press Club of India has expressed grave concern over the weaponisation of laws, including the use of some of the most draconian criminal laws, to target journalists and media organisations. Until now, the media fraternity has not seen any demonstrable evidence from the Government of India that it’s willing to provide legally binding assurances that the clauses regarding data gathering, informed consent, data processing, and data storage under the DPDP Act, 2023, for journalistic purposes won’t be weaponised to hamper or curtail the functioning of the press.