New Delhi: The recently cancelled order by the government over punishing journalists for ‘fake news’ after an intervention by the Narendra Modi, the Centre now seems to be starting monitoring to regulate online media and news portals.

 

The Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Smriti Irani, has recently set up a committee that will take up the issue for discussion and recommend a regulatory framework for online media.

The Secretary for Information and Broadcasting will lead the grouping that was installed on Wednesday, just a day after the ministry withdrew its guidelines on fake news.

The committee for the discussion is based on 10 members which includes secretaries of the ministries of Home, Electronics and Information Technology, Law and Industrial Policy and Promotion. There are also some representatives from the Press Council of India, News Broadcasters’ Association and the Indian Broadcasters Federation.

The group has been directed to identify the online information part that disseminations needs to be regulated on the lines of the print media.

The committee also needs to recommend policy for online media, news portals and online content platforms which includes digital broadcasting under which comes entertainment, infotainment and news aggregators

“It will do so keeping in mind the existing FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) norms, programmes and advertising code for TV channels and norms circulated by the representative bodies of media organisations,” the ministry’s order says.

The committee has also been directed to compare regulatory mechanism in other countries and advise best practices.

The content aired by the television channels owned by private media houses is regulated under the Programme. Advertisement Codes and the Press Council of India has rules on regulating print media.

“There are no norms or guidelines to regulate the online media websites and news portals. Therefore, it has been decided to constitute a committee to frame and suggest a regulatory framework for online media/ news portals including digital broadcasting and entertainment/ infotainment sites and news/ media aggregators,” says the government in its order.

The government made a hasty retreat on Tuesday as PM Modi cancelled within hours of an order that said journalists would lose their permit to access ministries and government functions if they were accused of any type of “fake news”.

According to the new rule which was cancelled very soon, a professional journalist accreditation would have to be cancelled once anyone alleges that the journalist is reporting fake news.

A professional journalist is considered for to be accredited by the Press Information Bureau of the Centre after she/he has at least “five years’ experience as a full-time working journalist.” Freelance journalists need to have at least 15 years’ experience and foreign correspondents need to have five years with a valid work visa.

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