There have even been some arrests – in India, Hungary and Kenya – of people who have spread fake news about Covid-19, using existing local laws. For example, in India, a person was reportedly arrested under the country’s Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 for spreading false information and rumours about the Covid-19 virus .
But the government has now raised the stakes. On Wednesday evening, regulations under the Disaster Management Act 2002 were published in the Government Gazette. Under section 11 of the regulations, it becomes an offence to publish a statement through any medium with the intention to deceive about Covid-19, anyone’s Covid-19 infection status or government measures to address the pandemic. The penalty is a fine or imprisonment for six months, or both.
Indeed, this regulation would have been unconstitutional if it caught within its net innocent falsehoods; and that would in any event have created a chilling effect on freedom of expression. This is not to say that non-deliberate forms of false news about Covid-19 should be welcomed: of course there is a pressing societal interest in all of us knowing the true facts about Covid-19.
Source: Healthcare Press (healthcarepress.net)
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