Media bodies voice concern over draft broadcasting services bill

New Delhi: Media bodies on Thursday voiced concern on the provisions of the draft broadcasting services bill and contended that it sought to create a multi-layered legal system to regulate and censor content in the digital space.

Addressing a press conference here, Ritu Kapur, general secretary of DigiPub News India Foundation, an organisation representing more than 90 digital news publishers, said it had reached out to the government to allow it to be part of the consultation process on the draft legislation but had received no response yet.

She said the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has held closed-door consultations with selective stakeholders, and larger discussions with digital media organisations and associations of civil society have so far not taken place.

"The Broadcasting Services Bill is one more step in creating a multi-layered legal system to regulate, control, monitor and censor content in the country which started with the IT Rules in 2021," Anant Nath, president of the Editors Guild of India, said.

The government had released the draft Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, 2023, in November last year with an aim to bring a consolidated legal framework for the broadcasting sector and also bring in its ambit the OTT content, digital news and current affairs.

The new draft of the bill, circulated selectively by the government, is reported to have proposed wide-ranging regulations on independent news creators on social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram and X, expanding its remit from OTT content and digital news content.