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Editors Guild Concerned About Broadcasting Bill

The proposed Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, 2023, has alarmed the Editors Guild of India, as they believe it will provide a comprehensive framework for censorship that will apply to all broadcasting services, including news broadcasting.

On November 11, 2023, the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry released a draft bill that aims to control news portals, OTT platforms, and YouTube journalists. The government was accepting feedback till Monday.

Several of the draft Bill’s provisions were “vague and excessively intrusive. the guild wrote to Anurag Singh Thakur, Minister of Information and Broadcasting, on December 7.” The letter, which was posted on X, expressed the guild’s fear that the Bill would negatively affect the press and freedom of speech, and it was put on X on Monday.

The guild said, “The draft outlines an overbearing system of self-regulation by mandating the creation of content evaluation committees in ways that can allow the government to exercise a great degree of control on these bodies. The draft further allows the Union Government to monitor and block content by establishing a Broadcast Advisory Council, to be headed by a bureaucrat, and therefore create an overarching censorship framework.”

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It claimed that the proposed Bill would allow the government to control and outlaw certain stations or shows for nebulous reasons. The I&B minister was asked by the guild to pause work on the draft and have serious discussions with all parties involved.

Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+Hotstar, and other broadcasting services or over-the-top (OTT) platforms will be subject to controls, according to the draft Bill. On the other hand, it would treat anybody who broadcasts news and current affairs on YouTube or other platforms just as OTT platforms. Although the ministry claims that the draft Bill aims to satisfy the industry’s evolving demands, legal experts and broadcasters are concerned about the draft’s ability to control internet content.

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