EDITORIAL: India sharing ‘top secret’ chats to journo?

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FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK:

When the 26/11 Mumbai attacks took place, the media coverage was on ground zero and gave way to Pakistani handlers in Karachi to coordinate with their footsoldiers on strategy and manoeuvres.

Swashbuckling Mr Arnab Goswami is back again, and this time the entire media fraternity is at stake. Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, in a press conference in Nagpur, was baffled by how the Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami knew about the Balakot airstrike three days before it was given the ‘Go Ahead’.

In 2019, India launched a preemptive strike against terrorist training camps in and around Balakot sector (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan).

Goswami is a journalist known for his fiery episodes on Primetime, but ego may have gotten the better of him as ethics were blown out of the picture.

National Security details are of utmost importance and should have been under lock and key.

If we can share an airstrike plan on platforms such as WhatsApp, then it should not come as a surprise to find Chinese boots in and around Northeast India (Chinese villages in Arunachal!)

Intelligence gathering plays a primary role in diplomacy and can act as a deterrence in times of war. Winning, losing and minimising collateral damage all depends on a solid firewall.

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The intercepts on WhatsApp on military issues questions whether they are journalists pursuing a story or an investigative reporting, we should always protect first-hand information.

Social media has become the weapon of choice not only for governments but from companies to startups, including terror organisations who unleash their content and bring the competition on a virtual setup.

LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media by P.W Singer shows how this minefield we are walking into is unbalanced.

In the past, India witnessed the Navy War room leak, which caused a national uproar that it was possible to penetrate the security apparatus of the country.

The sacrifice and dedication of our soldiers and paramilitary forces who manned the borders of our country should not be in vain.

Congress leader A.K Antony also expressed his concerned over the WhatsApp chat, saying that leaking official secrets is treason and those involved must be punished.

Without a shadow of a doubt, we need people like Glenn Greenwald, Julian Assange or former CIA employee Edward Snowden to bring into the forum of public domain that Governments or Corporations do not experiment with liberty and privacy through wiretapping and surveillance.

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