Centre hits pause on Broadcasting Bill, fresh draft after detailed consultations

New Delhi: The Central government announced on Monday that it will conduct additional consultations to prepare a fresh draft of the controversial Broadcasting Bill. This decision comes in response to growing concerns from various quarters regarding potential restrictions on social and digital media platforms in the proposed legislation.

The draft Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill, which was previously circulated among a select group of stakeholders, faced criticism from prominent media bodies such as DigiPub and the Editors Guild of India. These organisations claimed that digital media entities and civil society associations were not adequately consulted during the bill’s development process.

In a statement posted on social media platform X, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry said: “Ministry is holding a series of consultations with the stakeholders on the draft bill. Further additional time is being provided to solicit comments/suggestions till 15th October 2024.”

The ministry also confirmed that “a fresh draft will be published after detailed consultations.”

“The draft Bill was placed in public domain on 10.11.2023 along with the explanatory notes for comments of the stakeholders and the general public,” the ministry said.

It said in response, multiple recommendations, comments and suggestions were received including from various Associations.

The initial draft of the bill proposed to bring online content creators under the same regulatory umbrella as OTT platforms and digital news broadcasters. This would have subjected them to the ministry’s Content and Advertisement Code. One controversial provision would have required individual online content creators to appoint a grievance redressal officer and establish a content evaluation committee once they reached a certain number of subscribers.

These proposals sparked concerns about potential overreach and the impact on freedom of expression in the digital space.