The central government has withdrawn the Broadcasting Service Bill 2024 and said that a new draft of the Broadcasting Service Regulation Bill will be released after detailed consultations with all stakeholders. The government has sought suggestions for this draft bill by October 15. The bill had come under fire from the opposition as the opposition alleged that the revised draft of the bill was ‘secretly’ leaked to select stakeholders even before it was tabled in Parliament.
The ministry said in a statement that the deadline for public comment on the draft of this bill was November 10, 2023. Later, the government prepared a second draft of the bill in July this year. Now the ministry has said that people will be able to give their suggestions on this draft bill till October 15, 2024. The ministry has said that a new draft will be published after detailed consultation. At present, additional time is being given to seek comments and suggestions.
Let us tell you that digital news publishers and individual content creators were also opposing this bill. Media organizations had expressed concern over the provisions of the draft bill, saying that it attempts to create a multi-layered legal system to regulate and censor content on the digital platform.
According to Ritu Kapoor, general secretary of ‘DigiPub News India Foundation’, an organization representing more than 90 digital news publishers, the organization had sought permission from the government to be a part of the consultation process on the draft bill. The government released the draft Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill 2023 in November last year, which aims to bring a consolidated legal framework for the broadcasting sector and also bring OTT (digital platform) content, digital news and current affairs under its purview.
