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The central government had prepared a draft of the Broadcasting Regulation Bill in November 2023.
The country’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has withdrawn the draft of the Broadcasting Bill 2024. The ministry will prepare a new draft of the bill. Also, all stakeholders have been asked to return the hard copies of the draft given between 24-25 July 2024.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued a statement saying- We are working on the draft of the Broadcasting Service (Regulation) Bill. The draft of this bill was placed in the public domain on 10 November 2023 for comments from stakeholders and the general public. We received many recommendations, comments and suggestions from various stakeholders.
The ministry said that now additional time is being given till 15 October 2024 for suggestions and comments. A new draft of the bill will be published after further deliberations. The ministry is holding series of discussions with stakeholders on the draft bill.
The draft of the Broadcasting Regulation Bill was prepared in November 2023. The deadline for public comment on this was 10 November 2023. The second draft of the bill was prepared in July 2024.
The opposition had accused the government regarding the draft. It was said that the draft was secretly leaked among some selected stakeholders even before it was tabled in the Parliament. TMC MP Jawahar Sarkar had also raised this issue in the Rajya Sabha.
Digital news publishers and individual content creators object to the bill
- Digi-Pub News India Foundation and Editors Guild of India, organisations representing more than 90 digital news publishers, said that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting discussed this in a closed room with select stakeholders. There was no discussion with digital media organisations and civil society associations. They had also written a letter to the ministry to get the draft copy, but they did not receive any reply.
- The bill was objected to by digital news publishers and individual content creators. According to media reports, the draft was showing Instagram influencers and YouTubers as ‘digital news broadcasters’ based on their user base. The result of this would have been that influencers and YouTubers would have been required to register with the government for their content.
- Individual content creators and digital publishers said that through this bill, the government is imposing a kind of censorship on them. If the bill is implemented, the government cannot be criticized.
- At the same time, stakeholders also opposed the two-tier self regulation system. A provision for localization of data and the government having access to user data was added in the draft of the bill. Regarding this, stakeholders said that this provision would violate privacy. The possibility of its misuse was also expressed.
New Broadcasting Bill Objective
The central government wants to regulate, control, monitor and censor the content being published through this bill. It wants to put all broadcasters under the same regulatory framework. This will enable the government to streamline broadcasting working.
To prevent the spread of fake news, there is a plan to introduce content quote and age verification mechanism. The government says that after the implementation of the new Broadcasting Regulation Bill, the platform will be made accountable for hate speech, fake news and rumours spread on any OTT or digital platform.
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