The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the government agency that runs Aadhaar, invited widespread criticism across the country, especially from journalistic community, for naming the reporter in a police complaint after she wrote an article alleging a data breach in an identity database. The UIDAI move, seen as an act of "shooting the messenger", came a couple of days after a Chandigarh-based journalist reported about a breach in the largest biometric database in the world.
The Delhi Police registered an FIR on a UIDAI official's complaint naming the reporter behind the story, even as the daily said it will defend its freedom to undertake investigative journalism.
The Editors Guild of India condemned UIDAI’s action, saying it was designed to “browbeat a journalist.” “It is unfair, unjustified and a direct attack on the freedom of the press,” the Guild stated.
The UIDAI stated on Sunday that it respects freedom of press, adding that it was duty bound to name everyone involved in the incident, including the reporter.
“It does not mean that those who are named in the report are necessarily guilty,” the authority said.
The Tribune newspaper said it regretted the decision of the authorities.
India last year slipped three places to 136th in the World Press Freedom Index of 180 nations, compiled by Reporters Without Borders.
Journalists in India have increasingly become targets of online smear campaigns, with prosecutorial actions being used to gag journalists who are overly critical of the government, the group said.
"In less than a year, it is the fourth reported instance of free speech being assaulted in the context of the much touted Aadhaar," stated the Foundation for Media Professionals. "Besides being a travesty of the rule of law, the UIDAI's narrative in the FIR betrays a perverse intolerance to any interrogation by the media of its claim to have put in place a foolproof system," it added.
UIDAI Deputy Director B.M. Patnaik told the police that an input was received from The Tribune that it purchased a service being offered by anonymous sellers over WhatsApp that provided unrestricted access to details of any of the Aadhaar numbers created in India, the police said.
On January 5, a complaint was received from Patnaik and the FIR was registered the same day, they said. The FIR has been lodged with the cyber cell of the Delhi Crime Branch and invokes serious charges under the IPC, IT Act and Aadhaar Act.
"If there is no breach, what is the offence they have supposed to have committed?" asked a joint statement released by the Press Club of India, Indian Women's Press Corps and Press Association condemning the incident. "Rather than addressing the loopholes which would actually ensure safety and security of the data and allay the general concerns about this, the UIDAI has chosen to persecute those whose actions appear to have been only in public interest—i.e, drawing attention to the possibility of data insecurity before someone with ulterior motives is able to exploit them," they stated.
