NEW DELHI, JULY 11: The government is likely to re-visit some of the contentious clauses of the proposed broadcast bill and is keen to take the media industry into confidence before getting on with the process of formulating laws for governing them.
The ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B) secretary met the management of some of the leading private television channels and print publications, and assured them of ‘addressing’ the issues through consultation, a representative of a media group told FE.
The broadcast services regulation draft faced criticism from the media over the issues of cross-media restrictions, treatment of media industry offences under the criminal law, among others.
“The I&B secretary assured us that he will look into the contentious provisions of the draft bill and will do everything possible to involve the industry in the consultation process,” officials of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) said.
The broadcast bill in one form or the other has been tabled in Parliament twice before, first in 1998 and then in 2000. On both the occasions, it could not come up for discussions over several contentious issues. “This time, the government wants to formulate laws for the media and it looks serious enough to involve us in the discussions. In that light, it was a positive meeting,” officials of media companies, who participated in the meeting said.
The industry does not want the clause of treating offences in media under criminal law. “The draft bill talks about punishments from 3-5 years and heavy monetary penalty for offences. This is something which none of the media companies would like to deal with,” sources added.
The I&B secretary has taken a note of all the concerns of the industry and is likely to convey them to the I&B minister Priyaranjan Das Munshi. The programme code and guidelines are being worked in consultation with broadcasters. Likewise, the I&B secretary assured the media representatives of involving them in the formulation of enabling provisions of the draft bill before it goes to the Cabinet.
