Government refuses to exempt mainstream media from new IT rules, asks them to comply with norms

The government has rejected the demand to exempt the digital news content of mainstream television channels and print media from the ambit of the IT Rules, 2021 and asked them to take “urgent steps” to comply with the law, if not done already.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, in a letter to digital news publishers, OTT platforms and associations of digital media publishers, said the traditional news media – television and print – were already regulated by the programme codes under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act and the Press Council Act respectively and the digital media rules were not new or additional compliance.

“Making any exception of the nature proposed will be discriminatory to the digital news publishers who do not have a traditional TV/print platform,” the Ministry said.

The National Broadcasters Association (NBA) had recently written to the Ministry, urging it to “exempt and exclude” the traditional television news media and its extended presence on digital news platforms from the ambit of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, saying they were already “sufficiently regulated” by various statutes, laws, guidelines, codes and regulations.

However, the Ministry said the existing regulatory framework covered the broadcast and print media but did not extend to websites where the content differs from the traditional media.

It said the digital version/digital publication of the organisations having traditional news platforms (TV and print) may be following internal guidelines of the self-regulatory bodies.

“Accordingly, if the organisations so desire, they can request the same self-regulatory bodies to serve as the Level II of the self-regulatory mechanism, after ensuring consistency with the Digital Media Rules, 2021,” the Ministry said.

The Ministry also dismissed the concerns that the oversight mechanism stipulated under the digital media rules would lead to excessive government control over the functioning of the digital news publishers and the OTT platforms.