India’s Parliament has passed the Income Tax Bill, 2025, giving authorities sweeping powers to access emails, cloud accounts, and encrypted devices during searches.

• Journalists’ devices storing sources, investigations, and whistleblower info can now be seized on mere suspicion.

• No prior evidence requirement before searches.

• Investigative reasoning for searches may remain undisclosed, raising risks of abuse.

• Expands India’s already extensive tools to monitor independent media in the digital space.

• Apar Gupta, executive director of the Internet Freedom Foundation, highlights the chilling effect this law can have on press freedom.

• Journalists could be targeted through financial allegations under the guise of tax enforcement.

  This law puts independent reporting in jeopardy, threatens confidentiality of sources, and endangers free media in India.

 Are these powers a necessary tool against tax evasion or a threat to press freedom?

#PressFreedom #JournalismUnderThreat #IndiaNews #DigitalRights #MediaFreedom #IncomeTaxBill2025 #ProtectJournalists #FreePress