Daily Madhyamam Journalist gets BIG Relief from Kerala High Court, Police Cannot Seize Reporter's Phone & Force him to Reveal Source

Kochi, Kerala : The Kerala High Court has given an important decision towards the freedom of journalism in India. The High Court on Tuesday stayed the action of the Kerala Police, in which the journalist who reported data theft in the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC) was forced to reveal the source of his news and hand over his mobile phone to the police for investigation.

The Kerala Police had issued a notice to Aniru Asokan, Thiruvananthapuram correspondent of Malayalam daily Madhyamam, asking him to hand over his mobile phone to the police. The reason for this was Asokan's sensational report published in the Malayalam daily Madhyamam on July 28, in which he revealed the data leak of job applicants in the PSC. The report titled "Job applicants' details in dark web: DGP report" contained an image of the PSC agenda document, which according to the police was "highly confidential".

According to Aniru Asokan's lawyer Advocate Amin Hasan, Justice KV Jayakumar of the Kerala High Court has granted interim relief to Daily Madhyamam reporter Asokan for two weeks. Dainik Madhyamam had published a report in July that login credentials, such as usernames and passwords, of 65 lakh PSC candidates were available for sale on the dark web, where unverified, unindexed, encrypted websites are hosted. Later, the newspaper published a note from PSC Agenda confirming the report.

According to the note, the Kerala Police dark web investigation team had unearthed the data theft, and the state police chief had confirmed in his report to the PSC that the credentials available on the dark web were authentic. The note further said that the state police chief advised the PSC to implement two-factor authentication such as OTP to secure the profiles of candidates, which contain personal information such as name, date of birth, qualifications and caste.

The police pressure on journalist Aniru Asokan to reveal the source of the news and demand his mobile phone had been strongly opposed by journalist organisations. On 24 December 2024, the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) also took out a protest march against the police to the offices of the State Police Chief and various District Police Chiefs.