The DIGIPUB News India Foundation and the Editors Guild of India (EGI) have sounded a strong alarm over the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Rules, 2025, warning that the newly-notified provisions could open the door to censorship, state surveillance, and unprecedented curbs on journalistic work.
The rules, notified on November 15 – two years after the Act was first drafted – activate controversial clauses that media organizations say dismantle long-standing protections for reporters and undermine the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
Under the law, platforms must secure informed consent before processing personal data. But the absence of clear exemptions for the press, and the broad enforcement powers granted to the government, has triggered fears that routine newsgathering could now be interpreted as a violation.
DIGIPUB said the DPDP Act, 2023 and the DPDP Rules, 2025 “collectively cripple the Right to Information Act” and “create a regulatory framework that endangers journalism.”
By excluding journalists from statutory exemption and expanding the State’s access powers, the organisation said the rules “open the door to indirect censorship, a chilling effect on free expression, and disproportionate surveillance of legitimate newsgathering activities.”
“These provisions endanger source confidentiality, hinder public-interest investigations, obstruct anti-corruption disclosures, and weaken the information framework essential for democratic accountability,” it stated.
DIGIPUB also highlighted that Section 44(3) substitutes Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, abolishing the public-interest override that journalists and activists have relied on for two decades. Although the group formally raised objections and met MeitY officials during consultations, it said no response was received and no clarifications – promised in the form of FAQs – have been issued to date.
Echoing these concerns, the Editors Guild said the notified rules “do not alleviate” fears regarding consent obligations that could burden newsrooms and obstruct reportage.
Without explicit safeguards for journalistic activity, the Guild said there is a danger that even gathering information from sources could be treated as “processing” requiring individual consent.
“In the absence of such clarity, confusion and over-compliance will weaken press freedom and obstruct the media’s essential role in a democratic society,” the Guild noted. It urged MeitY to urgently issue a clear exemption for bona fide journalism.
Although the government has said the Act will be implemented in phases over 18 months to allow companies time to adjust, media organizations argue the damage to press freedom has already been set in motion.
DIGIPUB warned the new rules pose “a serious threat to the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a)” and said they impose “an unreasonable, constitutionally suspect burden on independent media.”
With no official clarifications issued and sweeping powers already operational, both DIGIPUB and the Editors Guild say India’s new data protection framework risks becoming not just a privacy law but a mechanism of control over the free press.