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Home / UPSC Editorials / Broadcasting Regulation Bill 2024

Broadcasting Regulation Bill 2024: Provisions & Concerns UPSC Editorials

Last Updated on Aug 05, 2024
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The Information & Broadcasting Ministry has reportedly been holding closed-door meetings with multiple stakeholders from the broadcasting and entertainment industry on the draft Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, 2023, which aims to bring a consolidated legal framework for the broadcasting sector and extend it to OTT content, digital news, and current affairs as well.

Analysis Based on

Editorial published in The Indian Express on the proposed Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, 2023 in Parliament

Topics for Prelims

Parliament, Bills, Acts, Government Policies, Regulatory Bodies

Topics for Mains

Parliament, Government Acts and Policies, Regulation of Media, Regulatory Bodies

Current Broadcasting Regulation Norms in India

Media in India is mostly self-regulated. Different media and broadcasting platforms are regulated under different statutes in India. Some of them are as follows:

  • Ministry of Information and Broadcasting: It is the focal point for matters related to private broadcasting, public broadcasting service (Prasar Bharati), multi media advertising, regulation of print media etc.,
  • Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI): It regulates the tariffs payable to subscribers of television channels and service providers in the broadcasting sector.
  • Electronic Media and Monitoring Centre: It was established to supervise, monitor and record the content that is broadcast on Television channels in accordance with the government norms and regulations.
  • Prasar Bharati: It is a statutory autonomous body set up by Parliament under Prasar Bharati Act 1990, and comprises Doordarshan Television broadcasting and Akashvani.
  • Cable Network Act 1995: It governs broadcaster and distribution registration, and the State government has established many monitoring agencies to ensure proper implementation of the Act.

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Key Highlights of the proposed Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, 2024

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is committed to ushering in a new era of transparency, Self Regulation, and future-ready broadcasting services in the country with the Draft Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, 2024 and hence provided following key features:

  • Consolidation and Modernization: It addresses a long standing need of consolidating and updating the regulatory provisions for various broadcasting services under a single legislative framework. This move streamlines the regulatory process, making it more efficient and contemporary. It extends its regulatory purview to encompass broadcasting over-the-top (OTT) content and digital news and current affairs currently regulated through IT Act, 2000 and regulations made there under.
  • Contemporary Definitions and Future-Ready Provisions: To keep pace with the evolving technologies and services, the bill introduces comprehensive definitions for contemporary broadcasting terms and incorporates provisions for emerging broadcasting technologies.
  • Strengthens the Self Regulation Regime: It enhances self-regulation with the introduction of ‘Content evaluation committees’ and evolves the existing Inter-Departmental Committee into a more participative and broader ‘Broadcast Advisory Council’.
  • Differentiated Programme Code and Advertisement Code: It allows for a differentiated approach to Programme and Advertisement Codes across various services and requires self-classification by broadcasters and robust access control measures for restricted content.
  • Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities: The bill addresses the specific needs of persons with disabilities by providing for enabling provisions for issue of comprehensive accessibility guidelines.
  • Statutory Penalties and Fines: The draft Bill introduces statutory penalties such as: advisory, warning, censure, or monetary penalties, for operators and broadcasters. Provision for imprisonment and/or fines remains, but only for very serious offenses, ensuring a balanced approach to regulation.
  • Equitable Penalties: Monetary penalties and fines are linked to the financial capacity of the entity, taking into account their investment and turnover to ensure fairness and equity.
  • Infrastructure Sharing, Platform Services and Right of Way: The bill also includes provisions for infrastructure sharing among broadcasting network operators and carriage of platform services. Further, it streamlines the Right of Way section to address relocation and alterations more efficiently, and establishes a structured dispute resolution mechanism.

Concerns Regarding Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill, 2024

There have been some serious concerns related to many provisions and their potential threat on different stakeholders. These are some of the concerns related to proposed Broadcasting Regulation Bill: 

  • Threat of ‘Inspector Raj’: The Bill expands the scope to classify individual commentators as ‘Digital News Broadcasters‘ and content creators as ‘OTT Broadcasters‘. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting can prescribe and change thresholds for subscribers or users, which, when met, require registration. The Bill increases the Union Government’s command and control over digital media.
  • Impact on content innovation: The stringent and subjective codes could lead to content censorship and affect the audience experience.
  • Compliances for online platforms: It establishes a new safe harbor regime independent of the Information Technology Act, 2000. In addition to the IT Rules, 2021, the government can demand registration, enforce censorship, and even require platforms such as YouTube to frame special compliances not only for news channels but also for creators.
  • Issues with the Content Evaluation Committees (CEC):The government will prescribe the criteria for the constitution of CEC, which raises questions of its independence. The requirement of disclosure of personal details of the members of the CEC to the government and public, is against the Right to Privacy. It also contradicts the provisions of the Digital Personal Data protection legislation and K.S.Puttaswamy judgement given by the Supreme Court of India. Disclosure of personal details also puts them at risk of physical or online harassment, for approving a content which may offend an individual or a group.
  • Issues with the Broadcast Advisory Council (BAC): All the members of the proposed Broadcast Advisory Council (BAC) will be nominated by the Centre. Since the BAC will have a final say on censoring content across all broadcasting mediums, the government may push for content censorship through BAC.
  • Selective targeting of Journalists: It is alleged that the bill may be misused to selectively target the journalists by the government, like the IT Rules 2021 are being misused to harass journalists and media houses.
  • Potential Impact on Minority Communities: There are concerns of misuse of the vague language in the bill for erasure or selective representation of Indian minority communities and promotion of majoritarianism in India.
  • Conflict of Interest: The bill does not address the conflict of Interest and opaque issues in media regulation.
  • Oligopoly in Media Ownership: The unbridled power provided to government officials in the broadcast media regulation may lead to collusion between the government and media houses to create oligopolistic media ownership.
  • Reduced autonomy of OTT platforms: Application of the stringent rules and codes of cable or radio to OTT broadcasting services, may increase the financial and compliance burden for OTT broadcasters. This will end up negatively impacting the user experience, choice and making it expensive for the end customer.

Conclusion

India being a vibrant democracy needs a transparent regulatory framework for media and broadcasting. The rise of digital media emphasises the need for balanced regulation that safeguards democratic freedoms while ensuring responsible use of digital platforms.The proposed Broadcasting Regulation Bill can be helpful in ensuring a responsible media if the concerns raised by different stakeholders are dealt with accordingly and arrive at a win-win situation striking a balance between accountability and transparency.

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UPSC Previous Year Questions

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Question

2014

What do you understand about the concept “freedom of speech and expression”? Does it cover hate speech also? Why do films in India stand on a slightly different plane from other forms of expression? Discuss.

Mains Practice Questions

Q1. Discuss the challenges and existing framework for the regulation of OTT Platforms in India?

Q2.Critically examine the role media play in connecting governments and citizens in a democracy. Do you think this role is under threat in recent times?

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