India

Parliament approved the Information Technology Act in May 2000 to crack down on cybercrime, which it defines as unauthorised access to electronic data. Hacking is punishable by up three years in prison and heavy fines. Cybercafés and the homes of Internet users can be searched at any time without a warrant if cybercrime is suspected and those who set up "anti-Indian" websites can be jailed for five years. The press revealed in March 2001 that police and government agencies were regularly harassing ISPs to provide personal information about their customers. The head of one of the biggest ISPs, Rediff.com, said he was being approached about once a month but refused to cooperate. The boss of Satyam Infoway, another major ISP, said he was under constant pressure of this kind. Registration of cybercafé customers The strict legal regulation of the Internet allows prosecution of anyone violating what the government considers moral and political rules. In April 2001, police investigated pupils at one of New Delhi's biggest schools, accusing them of creating a "pornographic" website featuring their teachers and classmates. The probe began after the father of one pupil saw the name of his daughter on the site. The authorities regularly condemn pornographic sites as the plague of the Internet, but they are hugely popular with customers of the cybercafés that are opening everywhere in major cities. Cybercafé owners make a goodwill gesture to the government by displaying warning notices to discourage their young customers. Police in Mumbai announced in May 2001 that anyone wanting to use a cybercafé there would need to show an ID, driving licence or student card or for foreigners a passport or plane ticket. Customers deemed bona fide would be given a special card they could use on each visit. Cybercafé owners opposed the measure, but the authorities argued that they received some 50 complaints a day about credit card fraud, hacking, supposed terrorist activities or pornography on the Internet. In June 2002, the Indian Intelligence Bureau reportedly asked the American FBI to help it develop software to tap into mobile phones and e-mail messages of members of criminal and terrorist groups. The news site rediff.com said talks were going on to establish this link between the two intelligence agencies. Confidentiality of journalists' sources under threat In November 2001, an anti-terrorist law (the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance - POTO) was passed in the wake of the 11 September attacks, allowing the government to monitor all kinds of electronic communications, including personal e-mail, without legal restriction. Evidence gathered this way can be used in court against a suspect. In an attempt to justify its anti-terrorist and anti-cybercrime policy, the government said it would share this information with the US intelligence services. As important users of the Internet, journalists were especially targeted in the first draft of the new law, which proposed jail terms of five years for failure to give the authorities information about terrorists or terrorist organisations. After protests by the opposition and human rights and freedom of expression activists, this clause, obliging journalists to reveal their sources, was dropped and law adopted for a period of three years instead of five. Tehelka.com brings down the defence minister This attempt to control the Internet did not however prevent people from using it as a new vehicle of press freedom. In March 2001, a news site called Tehelka.com (which means "great excitement" in Hindi) lived up to its name. Investigative journalists, equipped with video cameras and pretending to be arms merchants, revealed that politicians, civil servants and top army officers had accepted bribes and the services of prostitutes in exchange for helping businessmen get government and especially military contracts. This corruption enquiry rocked the political class and the government itself and defence minister George Fernandes and the president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Bangaru Laxman, were forced to resign. The scandal highlighted the possibilities of the Internet as a new medium, but also drew a repressive reaction. The editor of Tehelka.com complained of efforts by the prime minister's office to discredit the site, accusing it being in the pay of Pakistani intelligence and organised crime. The journalists who broke the scandal were physically threatened and had to be given heavy police protection. About 20 intelligence agents from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) searched the New Delhi offices of Tehelka.com on 26 June 2002, as well as the home of one of its journalists, Kumar Badal. He was accused of hiring two poachers to film and kill two of a protected species of leopards in the jungle in Saharanpur, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. But the CBI could not produce any incriminating evidence from among the material they had seized in their searches. However, the agents reportedly confiscated papers about the founding of the website, including e-mails from Shankar Sharma, owner of the company First Global and the first to bankroll the operation, who is now in prison. The searches were ordered a few hours before the website's chief editor, Tarun Tejpal, was due to give evidence to the Venkataswami Commission set up by the government to look into the corruption revealed by the site. The hearing of Tejpal, set for the same day as that of the former president of the Samata party, Jaya Jaitly - the alleged contact between the defence minister and the arms dealers - was postponed. The website's lawyer, Kavin Gulati, said the enquiry had reached a crucial moment of cross-examining witnesses, which suggested that the date of the search was deliberately chosen. A CBI spokesman said it was "sheer coincidence." Badal was arrested on 3 July and went on hunger strike for several days in protest against his imprisonment. He was being held under the Wildlife Protection Act and was humiliated in various ways. "I've been subjected to all this just because I work for Tehelka, which is determined to expose high-level corruption," he said. He was freed on 13 January 2003 on bail of 50,000 rupees (nearly 1,000 euros) by a simple decision of the supreme court. But federal police vainly tried to block his release, saying investigations were not yet complete. Badal was put under house arrest in New Delhi and has to report to the CBI on the first Monday of each month. He was also banned from going to the Saharanpur district, where the complaint against him was filed. The harassment of Tehelka partly explained why the site announced in early 2003 it could not longer keep up a daily edition. Tejpal said that despite the reputation the site had gained and the praise it had received, Tehelka had been relentlessly victimised because of its revelations about the military. For two years, the staff had been harassed and arrested, and had shrunk from 120 to three, and the site's debts had mounted. He said he hoped the site would eventually return to help build free media in India. Journalist jailed for downloading material from the Internet Police in New Delhi charged journalist Iftikhar Gilani, New Delhi bureau chief of the Kashmir Times and correspondent for the Pakistani daily The Nation, with spying for Pakistan on 7 September 2002 by passing on details to Pakistani officials of the position of Indian troops and paramilitary forces in Kashmir. The charges were based on clauses of the Official Secrets Act and also articles of the Penal Code relating to criminal conspiracy and pornography. He had been arrested on 9 June. After first accusing him of financial irregularities, spying and involvement in pornography, police then said he had downloaded a document from the Internet about the fighting in Kashmir and had admitted it was to be handed to Pakistan. This material was available to any member of the public, but the judge in charge of the case said she had not had time to look at the website in question to check. Gilani said he had been beaten by other detainees at Tihar prison, near New Delhi, and refused access to the library. His several requests for release on bail were rejected. An army intelligence official told a judge on 23 December that no secret information had been found on Gilani's computer, obliging the government to drop prosecution of him and ask for his release. When he came out of prison on 13 January 2003, he called on journalists and politicians to see that the state secrets law was repealed. Links: The independent news site Tehelka The Department of Telecommunications The independent magazine Frontline The computer magazine Dataquest