Media Ethics & law

1. Official secrets act ,1993
Presentation by – Abianash Pani
Subject – Media Ethics & Laws
Guided by & submitted to –
Asst. prof. Sujit ku. Mohanty
Department of Journalism & Mass

2. What is OSA ?
The Official secret Act 1923 is India's anti
espionage act held over from British
colonisation. It states clearly that actions
which involves helping an enemy state
against India.

3. Section 5 in The Official Secrets Act, 1923
If any person
 willfully communicates the code or password, sketch, plan, model,
article, note, document or information to any person other than a
person to whom he is authorized to communicate it.
 uses the information in his possession for the benefit of any foreign
power or in any other manner prejudicial to the safety of the State
 fails to take reasonable care of, or so conducts himself as to endanger
the safety of the sketch
 If any person having in his possession , which relates to munitions of
war, communicates it, directly or indirectly, to any foreign power or in
any other manner prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State

4. Prosecution and penalties
Punishments under the Act range from three to
fourteen years imprisonment.
A person prosecuted under this Act can be charged
with the crime even if the action was unintentional
and not intended to endanger the security of the

5. Conflict with right to information
In the OSA clause 6, information from any
governmental office is considered official
information, hence it can be used to override Right
to Information Act 2005 requests.
1- Iftikhar Gilani case
2- Delhi court judgement in the case involving
journalist Santanu Saikia
3-declassified certain documents related to Netaji
Subhash Chandra Bose.

6. How are official documents classified?
(i) Top Secret
(ii) Secret
(iii) Confidential
(iv) Restricted
“Top Secret” is for information whose
unauthorized disclosure could be expected to
cause “exceptionally grave damage” to national
security or national Interest. This category is
reserved for the nation’s closest secrets.

7. “The section 22 of the RTI Act says the Act’s
provisions shall have effect notwithstanding
anything inconsistent contained in the OSA or
any other law or in any instrument having
effect by virtue of any other law”.

8. Conclusion
While the OSA had legally perpetuated a culture of
secrecy (and corruption) and denial of any rights against
them, the RTI Act ushered India into an era of
transparency and accountability. Thus, the real difference
between these two acts is in the shift of cultures of the
two regimes. However, the Official Secrets Act has NOT
been totally overridden by the Right to Information Act,
2005.