New Delhi:The government has withdrawn the draft Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill 2024, which had received a lot of backlash from several quarters amid fears of the Centre attempting to have greater control over online content.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), sources said, has withdrawn the draft and will release a new one after more deliberations. According to sources, one of the reasons behind the withdrawal of the draft is the pressure from The News Broadcasters and Digital Association.
The government had also received many recommendations and comments from different organizations in response to the draft, after which the current draft was withdrawn. Now the government has extended the time to give suggestions and feedback till October 15, 2024.
While the MIB has not officially confirmed that it has withdrawn the bill, the Ministry on Monday evening said the government will hold further consultations for preparing a fresh draft of the broadcasting bill.
The draft Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill, circulated by the government among a few stakeholders, drew criticism from media bodies such as DigiPub and the Editors Guild of India which claimed that digital media organisations and civil society associations were not consulted on the move.
“The Ministry is holding a series of consultations with the stakeholders on the draft bill. Further additional time is being provided to solicit comments/ suggestions till 15th October 2024,” the Information and Broadcasting Ministry said in a post on X.
“A fresh draft will be published after detailed consultations,” the ministry said. The ministry said it was working on a draft Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill. “The draft Bill was placed in public domain on 10.11.2023 along with the explanatory notes for comments of the stakeholders and the general public,” the ministry said.
It said in response, multiple recommendations, comments and suggestions were received including from various Associations. A version of the draft bill sought to club online content creators with OTT and digital news broadcasters, bringing them under the ambit of the ministry’s Content and Advertisement Code.
The provisions would have made it mandatory for individual online content creators to appoint a grievance redressal officer and a content evaluation committee once they crossed a certain number of subscribers.
According to the old draft, the government was preparing to crack down on YouTubers. Also, in the draft of that Broadcast Bill, there was a provision to put news informers in the category of broadcasters. In this, a category of digital news broadcaster could be created for them. This was the second draft of the Broadcast Service Regulation Bill 2024 which would replace the existing Cable TV Network Act 1995.
It said that people who regularly upload videos on social media, create podcasts or write about current affairs online can be classified as digital news broadcasters.
The definition of OTT broadcasting service was also revised, due to which not only Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, but content creators who regularly upload their content on social media can also definitely be OTT broadcasting services.
For example, a chartered accountant who posts videos on YouTube and Instagram on how to file IT returns is a 'professional' under the Bill and can attract the provisions of the Bill if they have enough followers/subscribers. A journalist who tweets regularly is also covered under this.
