In a forceful interview, N. Ram – one of India’s distinguished journalists – says the new amendments to the IT rules are “a very sorry day for India”. He says they are “unconstitutional” and “clearly outside the constitution’s protection to free speech” in Article 19. Ram, the former editor-in-chief and publisher of The Hindu, says the terms “fake or false or misleading”, which are the grounds for taking down news or information about “any business of the Central government”, are “unacceptably vague”. He says they will “open the gates to mischievous and arbitrary takedowns”.In a 23-minute interview with Karan Thapar for The Wire, Ram says that the terms “fake or false or misleading” do not appear in Article 19 of the constitution as legitimate grounds for restricting free speech. Therefore, these new Information Technology rules clearly breach the fundamental constitutional right of free speech which is given to every citizen of India by our constitution.Ram said that it is “totally unacceptable for the government to be prosecutor and judge in its own course”. He said the impact of the new IT rules would be “a major harm to journalism”. He said it is “a direct threat to free journalism as we know it”.In the interview, Ram is also asked if he agrees to the Editors Guild of India’s characterisation of the rules as “akin to censorship”. He is also asked if the new rules mean that all the information we have about Chinese encroachment onto Indian territory in Ladakh and the fact that the buffer zones are on India’s side of the Line of Actual Control, which the government has never confirmed and often denies, would have to be removed from websites and, as a result, we would never know the truth?See the full interview for more details.