The ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) has decided to not release any fresh draft of the Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, the Financial Express reported on August 19. The report stated that official sources within MIB said there’s no need for such a law.
After getting mixed feedback from different quarters on the existing draft of Bill, last week the Ministry said it would be issuing a fresh draft post a thorough stakeholders consultation. A key point of contention was the proposal to bring online content creators under the purview of licensing or registration.
The Ministry was said to be holding a series of consultations with stakeholders on the draft Bill and the deadline for the consultation had been extended till October 15, 2024. A fresh draft was supposed to be published after detailed consultations.
The FE report’s sources said the government is working on a Digital India Act, and if any further issue needs to be addressed, it will be done through that.
The new I&B minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who took over in June this year, expressed his reservation about the Bill and reportedly pulled up the officers concerned over the manner in which it was drafted, sources told FE.
The first draft Bill was placed in public domain on November 10, 2023 along with the explanatory notes for comments of the stakeholders and the general public.
The second and most recent draft, which was shared with a handful of stakeholders a few weeks ago, drew sharp criticism from various groups- from social media creators to politicians and broadcast industry stakeholders.
It proposed regulations on independent news creators on social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram and X, expanding its remit from OTT content and digital news content.
With the latest draft of the Bill, the Centre tried to push for a consolidated legal framework to organise the broadcasting sector, including OTTs and online creators – overhauling all the existing policies. The Bill is said to replace one of the earlier key regulations for cable television, governed by the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act of 1995.
It mandated that OTT broadcasting service operators or digital news broadcasters shall within one month from the publication of the Act provide an intimation to the government of its operations- along with its number of subscribers, and viewers. Additionally, as a user of social media intermediaries, they shall be responsible for ensuring compliance with all the requirements under the Act.