Friday 6 April 2018

Journalists & cyber law experts not happy with Govt’s proposal of regulating online media

After making a U-turn from fake news norms, the Government is now planning to bring regulation to monitor/curtail online media. The steps have not been liked by the Indian Journalists Union (IJU) which has protested against the decision.


The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting will soon appoint a panel to recommend regulatory framework for online media without the representation of working journalists, editors and managements of the newspaper industry.

According to President of IJU S.N. Sinha, secretary-general D. Amar, and Vice President Sabina Inderjit, it was absurd to think of online media regulation on the advice of bureaucrats and managements’ associations of electronic media without involving representative organisations of working journalists, editors and managements of newspaper industry.

They added, the panel is proposed to consist of officials of various ministries, representatives of Press Council of India, News Broadcasters Association and Indian Broadcasters Federation. Without representation of working journalists, editors and managements of newspapers, it is meaningless.

Cyber and media law experts have also expressed concern at the order. Pointing out that the 10-member panel formed to frame guidelines for websites lacks both a representative from digital media – the very object of the government’s ‘regulatory’ exercise – and a legal expert, lawyers said any provision to regulate the medium must be within the boundaries of freedom of speech as laid out under Article 19(1) of the constitution.

Advocate and public policy professional Apar Gupta commented, “On several levels, it seems that the ministry’s order is nothing but just a disguised attempt to bring in a ‘pick and choose’ policy.”

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