New Delhi, June 12: All mainstream media, including print and electronic, will have to comply the provisions of IT Rules, 2021 with immediate effect without exemption as the government has refused to exempt them from the ambit of the new digital media rules.
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) has said that the rationale for bringing the websites of the organisations under the ambit of the law is “well-reasoned”.
“Making any exception of the nature proposed will be discriminatory to the digital news publishers who do not have a traditional TV/print platform,” the ministry said in a clarification to digital news publishers, publishers of online curated content or OTT platforms and associations of digital media publishers.
The government’s clarification came as the National Broadcasters Association (NBA) had recently written to the I&B ministry urging it to “exempt and exclude” the traditional television news media and its extended presence on digital news platforms from the ambit of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, saying they are already “sufficiently regulated” by various statutes, laws, guidelines, codes and regulations. Noting that code of ethics requires such digital platforms to follow the exiting norms or content regulations, which are in vogue for the traditional print and TV media, the Ministry said, there is no additional regulatory burden for such entities.
Accordingly, it said, the request for exempting the digital news content of such organisations from the ambit of digital media rules 2021 cannot be acceded to. “It does recognise that entities having traditional TV and print media are already registered with the government either under the Press and Registration Books Act or the Uplinking and Downlinking Guidelines of 2011.
“The digital version/digital publication of the organisations having traditional news platforms (TV and print) may be following internal guidelines of the self-regulatory bodies. Accordingly, if the organisations so desire, they can request the same self-regulatory bodies to serve as the Level II of the self-regulatory mechanism, after ensuring consistency with the Digital Media Rules, 2021,” said the Ministry.