New Delhi : The Central Government on Wednesday issued a notification to bring online news portals, online content providers under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. As per the notification issued, the online news portals and online content programs now running in the country will come under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
As of now, there are no rules related to digital content in the country, nor are any autonomous bodies monitoring them. The country currently has a Press Council of India (PCI) for print media, the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) for TV news channels, the Advertising Standards Council of India for advertising, and the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for films. Complaints by any of these mediums can be appealed to the organizations associated with them, but there is no such institution yet for online news portals and online content providers.
4 important things related to this
– Earlier, the Center had told the Supreme Court that regulation of online media is more important than TV as they have more impact.
– Last month, the Supreme Court sought answers from the Center on the issue of creating an autonomous body for OTT platforms.
– In this regard, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Central Government, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Mobile Association of India.
– Netflix, Hotstar and Amazon Prime etc. come under OTT platforms. They run on the operator’s network and can be accessed with the help of the internet.
In September, during the hearing of a second case, the Center advocated regulation on these platforms. Then the government had said that the reach of digital media is very fast and due to Facebook and WhatsApp etc. it can make anything viral. Digital media has serious implications so the court should first look into it.
