A bench comprising Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Sandeep Mehta, on July 9, directed the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to submit an affidavit to the Supreme Court within the next three weeks, highlighting the recommendations on the ‘self-declaration certificate’ mechanism.
Intervention applications were filed by various associations such as ISA, AAAI, IAMAI, Association of Radio Operators, etc.
Storyboard18 is the first to break the news.
Justice Kohli directed the MIB to continue conducting brainstorming sessions with stakeholders on how an implementable mechanism can be achieved, and submit their recommendations in the three weeks. In the interim, the MIB advisory remains in force. The matter has now been listed for July 30.
She said, “The intention is not to cause any harm to anybody. The intention is only to focus on particular sectors and particular aspects. So whatever is extraneous and somehow is being interpreted otherwise shall be clarified. But we must have a clarity on this. …request you to convene a meeting so that all the stakeholders and the senior most officers of your department can have a brainstorming.”
“The industry is should not suffer in any manner; the Ministry is directed to continue the churning of ideas and have further meetings in this direction and file an affidavit making its recommendations within three weeks,” she said.
Justice Kohli noted that the idea is not to burden anybody, but to ensure that there is a regime and that it is operational and put in place in a proper manner. “Whatever has to be shortened and simplified should be done,” she said.
During the hearing it was also suggested that instead of two separate portals for uploading SDCs, one should be made mandatory.
It was further noted, “The MIB has held high level meetings with with various stakeholders with the idea of resolving the issues and the difficulties expressed by them, such meetings shall be taken further when and all the interveners and others who are deemed appropriate, to streamline the issues and point out the difficulties being faced.”
This follows MIB advisory on restricting the ‘self-declaration certificate’ for ads to an annual upload for Food and Health products and services, on July 4th.
Read more: Relief for advertisers as MIB restricts SDC for ads to food and health sectors only
Modifying its mandate that became effective from June 18 which required ‘self-declaration certificate’ for every ad across TV, print, radio, and digital, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) brought much relief to adland on July 4th by restricting SDCs only to food and health advertisements. Not only the mechanism stands restricted to these two sectors, but the mandate for ‘every ad’ has now changed to the ‘annual SDCs’.
Storyboard18 was the first to break the news. This advisory followed the June 25th meeting of the Ministry with the industry stakeholders including big tech platforms, broadcasters, Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA), Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA), among others where it had acknowledged the suggestion to limit the mandate to the food and health sectors only and also discussed the need for ‘one time certification’.