Digital/Online Media Brought Under Purview Of Ministry Of Information & Broadcasting [Read Notification]

Digital/Online media has been brought under the purview of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The Second Schedule of the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules has been amended to include  following entries viz. Films and Audio-Visual programmes ,News and current affairs content.

Digital/Online Media would include Films and Audio-Visual programmes, news and current affairs contents. This means OTT platforms, like Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc and online news portals are brought under the control of the Ministry.

Other subjects which are under the purview of the Ministry are Broadcasting Policy And Administration, Cable Television Policy, Radio, Doordarshan, Films, Advertising And Visual Publicity, Press, Publications, Research And Reference etc. On Monday, the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Three Hundred and Fifty Seventh Amendment Rules, 2020, were notified to include Digital/Online media related entries.

Interestingly, in the Sudarshan TV matter before the Supreme Court, the Centre had highlighted the lack of regulation on the web based digital media. Centre had submitted that it is necessary to lay down guidelines for the"web based digital media" which includes "web magazines" and "web-based news channels" and "web-based news-papers" as the same not only has a very wide reach but is completely uncontrolled.

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