Centre Withdraws Draft Broadcasting Services Bill, But Why Is It Caught In Controversy?

New Delhi: Amid allegations surfacing that some provisions of the bill raised concerns among online content creators, the government on Monday said a fresh draft of the proposed Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill would be published.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting stated that “multiple recommendations/ comments/ suggestions were received including from various Associations.” The ministry is reportedly holding a series of consultations with the stakeholders on the draft bill.

According to reports, the ministry had stated that additional time was being given to solicit suggestions till October 15. “A fresh draft will be published after detailed consultations,” the ministry had said, as quoted by the India Today.

Was a revised version of the draft bill given to a select few secretly?

On November 11 last year, the draft bill—which seeks to replace the existing Cable Televisions Networks Regulation Act, 1995— was placed in the public domain. But, the Opposition had alleged that a revised draft was ‘secretly’ distributed among a few selected stakeholders. Trinamool Congress MP Jawhar Sircar had also raised the issue in Rajya Sabha.

“Modi Govt suppresses truth from Parliament — but shares information with business houses and ‘stakeholders’. Govt HAS revised Broadcasting Bill & HAS CIRCULATED SECRETLY — yet it refuses to say this. It avoids rest of ques — as no democratic country has such a draconian law,” Sircar had written on X, formerly known as Twitter.

What’s controversial in the alleged revised version of the bill?

The ‘revised’ version of the bill allegedly has provisions that can potentially tag most online influencers as broadcasters if they were found to be dealing with current affairs in their work, reported the Hindustan Times. It can, thus, classify all online content creators—a classification that covers independent journalists on YouTube and Instagram to “thought leaders” on LinkedIn to newsletter writers –as either OTT broadcasters or as digital news broadcasters.

Consequently, if these ‘broadcasters’ were found to be beyond a threshold defined by the government, then they would have been needed to form Content Evaluation Committee (CEC) to pre-certify content they posted or shared, besides other things. The bill also allegedly sought to regulate advertising intermediaries, claimed reports.
Several news reports had claimed that these digital news broadcasters would be treated as separate from OTT broadcasting services and registered digital media, according to the revised bill.

Earlier, the first draft of the bill had proposed that OTT platforms, which now enjoy the freedom to create and share any kind of content, will be bound by a programme code.

Body of 90 digital news publishers seek copies of the bill

Representatives of DigiPub News India Foundation— an organisation of more than 90 digital news publishers, and the Editors Guild of India— had sought copies of the draft Bill from the ministry, but had not received any response, the India Today reported.
They alleged that the ministry had held closed-door consultations with selective stakeholders on the bill, ignoring digital media organisations and associations of civil society.