The Union Data and Broadcasting Ministry Friday invited feedback on a brand new draft Invoice that consolidates the authorized framework for the broadcasting sector and extends it to OTT content material and digital information and present affairs as effectively. The ministry in a press release mentioned feedback have been invited for 30 days on the Broadcasting Companies (Regulation) Invoice 2023.
I&B Minister Anurag Thakur mentioned the brand new Invoice was in line with PM Narendra Modi’s imaginative and prescient for “ease of doing enterprise” and “ease of dwelling”. “This pivotal laws modernizes our broadcasting sector’s regulatory framework, changing outdated Acts, Guidelines, and Pointers with a unified, future-focused method. It adapts to the dynamic world of OTT, Digital Media, DTH, IPTV, and extra, selling technological development and repair evolution.” he mentioned on X.
Sources mentioned it’s unlikely that the Invoice could be tabled within the Winter session of Parliament subsequent month as one other spherical of consultations shall be held after receiving suggestions from stakeholders. A preliminary spherical of intra-ministerial and inter-ministerial session has already been held, they add.
The Invoice additionally seeks to interchange the Cable Tv Networks (Regulation) Act of 1995 that has been in impact for 3 a long time. “The CTN Act serves as the first laws overseeing content material on linear broadcasting, together with cable networks. Nonetheless, the broadcasting panorama has undergone important modifications. Technological developments have launched new platforms resembling DTH, IPTV, OTT, and varied built-in fashions… there’s a rising must streamline the regulatory framework,” the ministry mentioned.
The draft Invoice additionally expands the purview of the rules to cowl OTT content material, digital information and has provisions to cowl rising applied sciences.
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“It seeks to supply for Content material Analysis Committees and a Broadcast Advisory Council for self-regulation, totally different programmes and commercial code for various broadcasting community operators, accessibility measures for individuals with disabilities, and statutory penalties, and so on,” the ministry mentioned.
The Broadcast Advisory Council would have one “eminent impartial particular person” with at the very least 25 years of expertise within the media, leisure, broadcasting or different related fields as its chairperson; 5 officers nominated by the Union authorities representing the ministries of I&B, Girls and Baby Improvement, Residence Affairs, Exterior Affairs and Social Justice & Empowerment as ex officio members, and 5 eminent impartial members from the fields of media, leisure, broadcasting, baby rights, incapacity rights, human rights and so on, the draft Invoice says.
The Invoice additionally introduces “Content material Analysis Committees” as a self-regulation mechanism. It additionally introduces statutory penalties like advisories, warnings, censures, financial penalties for operators and broadcasters, and imprisonment for “very severe offences”, the ministry mentioned. “Financial penalties and fines are linked to the monetary capability of the entity, making an allowance for their funding and turnover to make sure equity and fairness,” it mentioned.
