The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting withdrew the broadcasting bill for 2024 , after facing severe criticism from content creators over the internet. The bill established a state of commotion and disagreement among the online creators and mostly controls the rights of the online creators. Freedom of speech and expression were in dilemma after the draft bill and hence the government retreated the draft bull that was passed over.In July, a draft bill was analysed among the stakeholders to get the comments for the draft. Now, after facing trouble, the government ordered the stakeholders to return the draft bill. Government is again on a groundwork to work out the scheme, said sources.
Draft Bill About Broadcasting :
The Ministry declared a statement on X that “a draft bill is kept in the public domain last November and many negotiations are onboard with the stakeholders”. And the Ministry is ready to give some more time up-to October 15 and a fresh draft will be submitted after research works.There is no mention of sharing a watermarked copy of new bill that was shared with the stakeholder to avoid any leak of the bill. An anonymous person shared that stakeholders are confused, who are not part of the group whether they need to submit their comments on the draft bill 2024 version or the withdrawn bill in November 2023. The bill was about the replacement of the 1995 Cable Television Networks(Regulation) Act, it detonates about television broadcasting. Last year the government called the stakeholders to comment on the bill that was passed and it deals with the legal structure of OTT content and digital news and current affairs.
The Criticism Faced By New Draft Bill :
The new draft bill faced criticism as it explained about the repeal of OTT content and digital news to have social media accounts and video creators contrast the new bill that was released in November.The new draft proclaims “ professional” only to persons who are following planning, method, continuity or persistence. The new bill also states that “news and current affair programme contains text along with audio , visual , sign or signals, writing,images that are broadcast by a network.
The New Bill About Current Affairs And Trends :
In the new bill, it spoke about the news and current affairs programmes as
- Newly received audio, visual, or audio-visual programmes or live programmes should be socio-political, economic or cultural.
- Programmes which are transmitted or retransmitted in the network, should imply context, purpose, and import of the programme.
- Persons who are publishing news or current affairs in online platforms for business or commercial purpose.
The Bombay and Madras High Court established the rules of 9(1) and 9(3) of IT Rules 2021 that news and current affairs from broadcasting networks or individuals should follow a code of ethics and it should not affect the freedom of the press. Many independent creators and big companies were taken back by the government bill. As the bill speaks about the non-news online content creators, there was a big question whether it reached out to OTT platform creators. This is the main reason why the government took back the bill to reassure it.
The Bill Focuses On Content Creators:
The bill also focused on the users of YouTube, Instagram and even X , as they are getting paid through advertisements, monetisation, and subscriptions.The government schemed the bill to allocate the number of subscribers, users for OTT broadcasters, who are following the ethics of the broadcasting programme.
Conclusion:
The bill aimed to refrain some actions of content creators and to broaden the mindset of the viewers . The creators should follow some cultural rules as mentioned by the government and should publish the content based on it . The regulation is brought down to narrow the usage of online platforms
Inputs by Agencies
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