Right to information and freedom of press

We are living in a free and open world where information is considered the real power. UNDP says that democracy is one of the preconditions for development, and the success of a democracy lies in the transparency of governance.

In almost all the democracies the core issue is the accessibility of information to common citizens and a State's earnest to provide the same through constitutional and legislative measures. After a long wait, Indian people have been gifted the Freedom of Information this year only which is expected to go a long way to make information accessible to them. Some state governments have also enacted Right to Information Acts during the past few years. Besides these legislative measures, our Constitution guarantees Freedom of Speech and Expression [Article 19 (1)(a)] to the citizens which also includes Freedom of Press.

This book has tried to analyse the relationship between Right to Freedom of Information and Freedom of Press. The issue is whether legislations on Right to Information have given any strength to Freedom of Press. The book has also dealt with all related issues like response of the people and the public >authorities to the Right to Information and problems coming in the enforcement of the Acts as also the effectiveness of the Acts and their impact on the society. The issues pertaining to status of the Freedom of Information Act and its strength in case of a clash with the Official Secrets Act or other laws have been discussed and analysed to the understanding of readers.