The Broadcasting Services Bill Is Still At The Drafting Stage: Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the draft Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, 2023 was placed in public domain for feedback and comments of the stakeholders, including domain experts and general public. “The Bill is still at the drafting stage,” the minister said while responding to the questions posed by Rajya Sabha member Jawhar Sircar in the Parliament on Friday.

Mr Sircar asked the minister about the concerns raised by the Editors Guild of India, the National Alliance of Journalists, Delhi Union of Journalists and several others regarding the proposed Broadcasting Bill.  He also asked the central government on the its plan to avoid overlap of jurisdiction in view of Acts and Rules Amendments under the IT Act on data, private communications and public expressions on TV, films, OTT, YouTube platforms, social media as well as digital journalism.

Meanwhile content creator and journalist Meghnad questioned government’s intentions over the bill. He claimed the Modi government is trying to regulate content creators through the Broadcasting Bill while adding that they don’t want content creators to even have a say in this matter.

“They’ve been holding closed door meeting with OTTs and Platforms, coming up with a draft bill and not even telling the public what is happening. To make things worse, they dont want us to see the draft now. It’s been selectively shared with a few people,” he claimed.

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