Say no to overregulation of digital media

IFF has provided its comments on the Registration of Press and Periodicals Bill, 2019 ('RPP Bill') which seeks to replace the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867 ('PRB Act'). In its current form, the RPP Bill is plagued by definitional confusion and lack of a clearly stated purpose. The RPP Bill neither contains a clear definition of “news on digital media” nor does it indicate the objectives sought to be achieved by identifying and regulating digital news media. Digital news media is still in nascent stages of development in India and it must not be brought within the ambit of the RPP Bill to merely achieve regulatory parity with print media. We urge the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to start from a clean slate by publishing a whitepaper and conducting public consultation before drafting any regulatory legislation.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://internetfreedom.in/say-no-to-overregulation-of-digital-news-media-and-social-media/