New Delhi: The government has refused to exempt mainstream media, including print and electronic, from the ambit of the new digital media rules and has notified them to comply with the provisions of IT Rules, 2021 with immediate effect.
"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 of Information and Broadcasting said in a clarification to digital news publishers, publishers of online curated content or OTT platforms and associations of digital media publishers.
Apparently, the National Broadcasters Association (NBA) had recently written to the I&B 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 are already "sufficiently regulated" by various statutes, laws, guidelines, codes and regulations.
However, the Ministry has made it clear that such a request for exempting the digital news content from the ambit of digital media rules 2021 cannot be acceded to.
"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," said the Ministry.
The Ministry also clarified that when any news and current affairs content of a digital news publisher is transmitted on an OTT platform, such content would be outside the regulatory responsibility of that platform.
Further, 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.
"The requirement of Level II under the Digital Media Rules, 2021 is only an extension of an existing institutional practice. Further, the composition of the self-regulating body would be decided entirely by the publishers and the government has no role to play," the ministry said. "It is neither stipulated nor intended for the government to either interfere or obstruct the formation of the self-regulating body including its composition," it added.
Informing that over 500 publishers have already submitted their details in the requisite format, the Ministry urged the publishers to furnish the requisite information in the prescribed format immediately, take urgent steps for appointing a grievance officer, if not done, and place all relevant details in the public domain, constitute self-regulatory bodies through mutual consultation so that the grievances are addressed at the level of publishers or the self-regulating bodies themselves.