Government Revives 2019 Bill To Bring Digital News Portals Under Its Ambit

The Union government is reportedly in the process of tabling a Bill before the Cabinet that will enforce a new registration regime for newspapers and digital news media industry alike. 

This is the second attempt by the government to bring online news platforms under its ambit, at par with print publications.

Called the Registration of Press and Periodicals Bill, the proposed legislation will seek to replace the British-era Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867 that currently overlooks the regulation of printing presses and newspapers printed in the country. 

According to The Economic Times, the Centre has completed all inter-ministerial and other stakeholder consultations, and the Bill will now go to the Cabinet for its nod. Thereafter, the government plans to table it in the Parliament at the ‘earliest’.

The Bill will reportedly bring online news portals under the ambit of the proposed legislation and mandate them to register with the Press Registrar General, at par with newspapers. The Press Registrar General will serve as the equivalent of the prevalent Registrar of Newspapers in India (RNI). 

In addition, the Bill also seeks to remove provisions in the existing law relating to registration of books and connected matters. The report noted that the Bill proposes to ‘decriminalise’ and simplify registration requirements and regulations.

Efforts On Since 2017

The Centre had made the first move on the matter in 2017. The 2017 version of the Bill was called ‘Registration of Newspapers and Publications Bill, 2017’ and was then republished two years later as the ‘Registration of Press and Periodicals Bill, 2019’ with certain changes. 

The Bill was the brainchild of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, led by Prakash Javadekar then, and sought to introduce regulations mandating online news portals to register with the government. 

The 2019 draft defined ‘news on digital media’ as ‘news in digitised format that can be transmitted over the internet, computer or mobile networks and includes text, audio, video and graphics’.

The plan led to a furore in 2019 and critics alleged that it was an attempt to ‘control’ digital news media. Under fire, the government then put the plan on the backburner, but has revived it now. 

According to a report by Reuters and Oxford University, around 73% of respondents in India accessed news through smartphones. It further noted that close to 53% of the polled participants from India used WhatsApp and YouTube for news.

According to Statista, India’s digital media market was valued at more than INR 300 Bn in 2021 and is projected to soar to INR 537 Bn by 2024.