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Hyderabad, The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) strongly condemned the registration of FIR against the Tribune newspaper based in Chandigarh and its reporter Rachna Khaira by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for exposing the data breach of Aadhaar information of the citizens for a fee.
In a statement issued on Monday, the IJU President S N Sinha, Secretary-General Amar Devulapalli and Secretary Balwinder Jammu said it was strange that the UIDAI instead of checking the loop holes in its system was targeting the newspaper and the reporter who exposed the corruption and criminal breach of trust by its own staff who were selling the information to make money.
A deputy director of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has on Sunday registered an FIR against The Tribune newspaper and its reporter Rachna Khaira following her report on how anonymous sellers over WhatsApp were providing access to Aadhaar numbers for a fee.
“The FIR against the newspaper, the reporter and her sources is a huge cover up of the corruption and inefficiency in the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and amounts to shooting the messenger. It is a direct attack on the freedom of the press,” the statement said.
The IJU called on the Union Government to immediately intervene and take strong steps to restore the faith of the people in UIDAI and protect their private date. It also urged upon the Press Council of India (PCI) to take suo motu cognizance of the case against the reporter of Tribune and take corrective steps
