The MIB has faced criticism for the opaque manner in which it circulated the second draft of the Broadcast Bill with certain stakeholders at the end July. The first draft of the bill, which was released in November 2023, was put up for public consultation; however, the comments were not made public.
“We expect the MIB to hold a transparent consultation process and take the views of all the stakeholders, including bodies like the Editors Guild of India, before coming out with the fresh draft,” said Anant Nath, the president of the non-profit organisation of journalists.
He also said that the Broadcast Bill should look to strengthen the self-regulatory mechanism rather than empower the government and bureaucracy to take decisions on pulling down content or taking channels off air.
“One possible option can be to strengthen a body like the Press Council of India, which is answerable to parliament, rather than giving powers to the Broadcast Advisory Council, which only comprises government officials,” Nath added.
Sources said the second draft of the bill has been kept on the backburner, with the ministry asking stakeholders to return the watermarked copies of the bill that were shared with them recently.In a statement on Monday, the MIB said that a fresh draft will be published after detailed consultations with stakeholders. It has solicited comments and suggestions from stakeholders on the draft bill until October 15.In the second draft of the bill, one of the most contentious clauses was treating social media users beyond a certain threshold, which was to be notified later, as OTT broadcasting service operators or digital news broadcasters.
Under this clause, the social media user publishing the content would be responsible for complying with the requirements of the act, including the three-tier grievance redressal mechanism.
Trilegal Partner TMT Nikhil Narendran said that the government should engage all the stakeholders in the consultation process considering the far-reaching impact the law will have on the TV and digital ecosystems.
“The MIB was very secretive about the second draft of the broadcast bill, which was only shared with a few stakeholders. It would be in everyone’s interest, including the government, to follow a transparent consultation process leading up to the fresh draft,” he added.
A media executive noted that there was no clarity whether the stakeholders have to send comments on the first draft or the second draft since MIB’s statement doesn’t clearly mention that the second draft has been withdrawn.
The Broadcast Bill, which will replace the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995, once it becomes an Act, will govern OTT, cable TV, direct-to-home (DTH), headend-in-the-sky (HITS), internet protocol television (IPTV), and radio.
Industry bodies like Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF), News Broadcasters and Digital Foundation (NBDA), and Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) have made submissions to the MIB that over-the-top (OTT) platforms must be kept outside the purview of the Broadcast Bill since they are distinct from linear broadcasting services.
Last week, the MIB minister of state stated that the government is adopting a differentiated approach for regulating content on OTT platforms and cable TV networks (linear TV).
Responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Dr L Murugan said the OTT platforms are regulated as per the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, while cable TV is governed by the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Regulations.
“Government is guided by a differentiated approach for content regulation on OTT platforms and cable TV networks, as the content in the former is consumed on a demand basis, whereas in the latter, it is in a linear manner,” Murugan told the Rajya Sabha last week.
