Union Minister Javadekar Meets Digital News Publishers Association Regarding New Rules

New Delhi, 12th March 2021: Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar on Thursday held a discussion with Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) on the new guidelines issued about digital media ie IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. Representatives were from India Today, Dainik Bhaskar, Hindustan Times, Indian Express, Times of India, ABP, Eenadu, Dainik Jagran, Lokmat, etc.

Javadekar also informed that the Digital News Publishers Association has welcomed the new rules and has also made some suggestions, which he has noted. It is noteworthy that the Government of India has recently introduced the OTT platform and digital news guidelines. They are self-regulatory and have not yet been implemented legally. However, the responsibilities of all have been fixed. Now OTT platforms and digital media will be responsible for their content.

Addressing the participants via video conferencing, Javadekar informed that the new rules placed certain responsibilities on digital news publishers. These include adherence to the Code of Ethics such as the norms of journalistic conduct framed by the Press Council of India and the Programme Code under the Cable Television Network Act. Further to redress grievances of citizens the rules have provided for a three-tier grievance redressal mechanism of which the first and second-tier would be of the digital news publishers and self-regulatory bodies constituted by them.

The digital news publishers would also be required to furnish some basic information to the Ministry in a simple form which is being finalised and periodically they would be required to place in the public domain the grievance redressal undertaken by them.

He stated that print media and TV channels have digital versions whose content is almost the same as that on the traditional platforms. However, some contents appear exclusively on the digital platform. This apart several entities are only on the digital platform. Accordingly, the rules seek to cover the news on Digital Media to bring them at par with the traditional media.

The participants while welcoming the new rules stated that TV and newsprint media have been following the laid down norms of the Cable Television Network Act and the Press Council Act for a very long time. Further for publishing the digital versions, the publishers do follow the existing norms of the traditional platforms. They felt that they should be treated differently than those news publishers who are only on the digital platform.

Before this, there were many voices of protest about the web series and content being shown on OTT across the country and there was a talk of making guidelines for OTT platforms like films.

Before this, the Supreme Court has also questioned the content shown on OTT. Due to the strict approach of the Supreme Court, the Central Government has also been encouraged to frame guidelines regarding OTT platform and digital media. After this, taking a big initiative, the central government has issued new rules. The government has established a dialogue with the people associated with it at many levels to remove misconceptions related to the new rules.