Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) high court on June 4 directed the government to consider a proposal for setting up an authority for regulating news outlets on social media.A division bench of Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur passed the order while hearing a writ petition filed by a Srinagar-based NGO, which had called for banning “any social media news network, agency, page, portal, running without license/permission” in the Union Territory.The court said that the government should “take an appropriate action most expeditiously to curb the circulation of fake news, which tarnishes the image of real journalists”.The petition, which was filed by Mubbashir Shuja of J&K Peoples Forum, stated that the government is “responsible for regulating the entire print, electronic and social media agencies within the Union Territory,” and thus, it is accountable under law for its effective functioning. It further pointed out the role of social media in rallying people to a cause during the mass uprisings of 2008, 2009 and 2010 in the Kashmir Valley.“Every person with a camera and a mic poses himself as a journalist, irrespective of the fact whether s/he is authorised and permitted to work as journalist and whether s/he has the requisite qualification,” the petition said.The petition also called for regulating TV news, newspapers and magazines in the Union Territory. “It has been an unhealthy practice in the Union Territory of J&K to grant declaration even to a non-professional person who has no journalistic background,” the petition said, requesting the government to “come up with a concrete media policy excluding non-professional from continuing with or obtaining declarations for running any paper, magazine or journal.”Also read: ‘Misuse of PSA’: Press Bodies Condemn Re-Arrest of Kashmiri Journalist Aasif SultanExperts’ viewsThe J&K high court’s order, which has left it to the administration to regulate “illegal” news outlets, might turn into a tool to curb the dissemination of genuine news, since there are existing laws to deal with the menace of fake news, free speech activists said.Geeta Seshu, a Mumbai-based journalist, who works with Free Speech Collective, a non-profit that promotes free speech, said: “The reason for this petition is, quite frankly, puzzling, since there are already very clear existing norms and laws that govern unethical journalism or even fake news.”She said that the news portals, social media pages and other online accounts are already regulated under the Information Technology Act, the Information Technology (Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code), Rules, 2021 (IT Rules 2021) and the Central Media Accreditation Guidelines-2022.The rules prescribe a clear framework for the regulation of content by online publishers of news and current affairs, and curated audio-visual content, by calling on the significant social media intermediaries to follow journalistic codes of the Press Council of India and Cable Television Networks Regulation Act, 1995.However, despite clear guidelines, the J&K government has failed to take strict action against those spreading fake news and misinformation.Also read: ‘Journalists in J&K Harassed for Not Toeing Govt Line,’ Press Council’s Fact-Finding ReportA Delhi-based media policy analyst, who didn’t want to be named, alleged that the J&K administration has been “promoting online news portals and outlets in Kashmir” to discredit journalists. He added that according to the petition, J&K government officials as well as private persons have been complaining of harassment by “journalists”, and the government clearly has no idea how to deal with them.Rohit Kansal, principal secretary of the information department, which regulates newspapers and other media agencies in J&K, refused to comment. The Wire has sent him a questionnaire on the issue and the story will be updated if and when he responds.Rouf Bhat, a media expert whose post-doctoral research focuses on the culture of fake news, said that “professional journalism has taken a backseat” in Kashmir due to the “sheer reach” of online news outlets on different social media platforms.“The fake news culture has become so deep-rooted in the online news ecosystem of Kashmir that it becomes difficult for a reader to differentiate authentic news from a fake one. There is concrete evidence that the administrators of some of these platforms impersonated journalists and duped common masses in the name of charity, helping the destitute and the sick,” he said.‘Petition confuses separate issues’Shuja, the petitioner, told The Wire that the “fake journalists running Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter pages have become a new virus that has spread everywhere.”Also read: J&K Police Summon ‘Kashmir Walla’ Acting Editor Who Was 12 When ‘Seditious’ Article Came Out“They are carrying mics and mobile phones in their hands and harassing the employees whether government or private,” he said.Rouf said that despite several instances of bad practices in journalism, the J&K administration has failed to act against the offenders. For instance, he said, recently, a “Facebook journalist”, who runs Kashmir Crown portal on the platform, paraded a health department official through a market in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district after police caught him for duping patients by falsely pretending to be a doctor.The petition in the high court seems to confuse a number of separate issues from unethical journalistic practices (door-stepping, trespassing, privacy violations), Geeta Seshu said, adding that bad journalistic practices need to be countered with transparent, fair and speedy redressal mechanisms.However, the court’s directive to the authorities to take appropriate action on mushrooming of news portals in J&K without due procedure of law should not be a “signal to bring in some kind of back-door regulation of news sites by government agencies”, she told The Wire.“That would be fraught with misuse and can end up curbing dissemination of genuine news in the public interest,” she said.“If they are given any licence or the government recognises them, it can institutionalise fake news,” Rouf added.