The Bengaluru Police issued a notice to the founder of a digital investigative news organisation on Thursday, January 5, asking him to reveal the source for a story related to a scam in the recruitment of high school teachers published in November last year. The Cyber Crime Police issued a notice to Mahantesh, the founder and editor of the online portal The File based in Bengaluru. The Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested 60 people in connection with the scam in September 2022. The police notice was issued in connection with a follow-up story published by The File in November of the same year.
Refusing to divulge his sources, Mahantesh, the founder and editor of The File, in his response to the police said, "It is not the ethics of journalism to divulge the name and details of a source who gives information about a scam, illegality, malpractice, maladministration."
The notice issued by the Cyber Crime police inspector said, "A complaint has been received regarding the leaking of documents from the education department and accordingly a case was registered by the Cyber Crime police station. Regarding the case, on 10 November 2022, the documents related to the education department were published on 'The File'. It is hereby directed that the information of the persons who handed the documents to 'The File' should be furnished along with the below mentioned information and documents for the purpose of investigation in the case." The police sought the name, address, mobile number and ID of the source who leaked the documents, as well as the reporter who followed the story.
Mahantesh, however, said that the publication will not divulge information of the source in the story to the police. "We feel that such notices are part of taking away the media freedom of journalists who are working fearlessly in independent media. Also, 'The File', an independent news website, has been publishing investigative reports for the past three years. Irregularities in the appointment of teachers were included in our reports," the statement by Mahantesh said.
The File is an independent news website based in Bengaluru which publishes investigative reports under the banner Pradarshak Media Foundation. Based on The File's initial story published in September 2022, 60 people were arrested in connection with irregularities in the recruitment of high school teachers in the academic year 2014-15. This included Made Gowda, a top official who was the director of the Karnataka Textbook Association.
Two months after he was arrested in connection with the scam, a note issued by the Public Instruction department, which administers school education in Karnataka, stated that Made Gowda and two others would be reinstated to their positions. A copy of the note issued by the Public Instruction department was published in a report on The File on November 10, 2022.
There are no special provisions in India giving a journalist protection of source confidentiality in a court of law. This is despite the 93rd and 185th Reports of the Law Commission of India recommending that journalistic privilege, subject to reasonable restrictions, should be codified into law.
Multiple High Court verdicts have stated that a journalist can be directed to reveal their sources. This includes the Bombay High Court case Javed Akhtar vs Lana Publishing Company, which ordered the disclosure of a source for a story covered by a magazine, and a Delhi High Court case Jai Prakash Agarwal v Bishambar Dutt Sharma, which led to a similar verdict. In a later case against The Hindustan Times, the Patna High Court ordered that it was within the capacity of the court to order disclosure of journalists’ source.
This reporting is made possible with support from Report for the World, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project.