Why the withdrawal of the draft Broadcast Bill raises more questions than it answers

The Indian Express has learnt that a major difference of opinion emerged within the bureaucracy of the ministry on whether the Bill should apply to non-news online content creators. As per the draft Bill, such creators would have fallen under the category of OTT broadcasters. This is one of the reasons why the government wants to rework the contours of the Bill, said sources.

The MIB did not respond to requests for a comment on the issue. But, in a statement posted on X on Monday night, the ministry referred to an earlier draft Bill placed in public domain in November last year, and said it “is holding a series of consultations with the stakeholders” and is offering them “further additional time” till October 15 to issue their comments. “A fresh draft will be published after detailed consultations,” it said.

The ministry’s statement, however, made no mention of the 2024 draft – which has led to more questions among stakeholders.

The unanswered questions

The statement has confused stakeholders, especially those who were not part of the group with which the government shared the 2024 version of the draft Bill. “Are we supposed to send our comments on the November 2023 version of the now withdrawn draft, because a copy was never formally shared with us,” said a person from the industry, requesting anonymity.

The second key question is around the secretive nature of the consultations that the government has engaged in since July this year. After it significantly altered and expanded the focus of the 2023 Bill (a draft of which was released publicly) to prepare the 2024 version, it has not held wide consultations on it. It consulted a handful of stakeholders including some industry bodies, telecom companies and tech companies. The 2024 version of the Bill was also only shared with these entities who were discouraged from sharing it further as they were given watermarked versions of the Bill with a code unique to each of them to prevent leaks.

Now, the government’s statement suggests that it is ignoring the privately circulated draft and is instead asking people to send comments to the one released in 2023. “But knowing that the government’s intention changed significantly in the latest version, are people supposed to send in their comments with that in mind? It also begs the question, if a provision is not included in the 2023 version but was present in the 2024 version, how can we make comments specific to that,” a second industry executive said.

Why the government wants to regulate independent news creators

It is understood that some of the big Indian creators of current affairs and news content on YouTube are on the government’s radar. To be sure, as per the current wording under the Bill, even foreign creators may fall under its ambit, although enforcing Indian content regulations on them could be challenging.

A senior government official said one key reason behind the significant expansion of scope in the current draft Bill compared to the version which was released for public consultation in November 2023 has been the “role a number of independent content creators played in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls”.

“There were a number of instances where creators made videos on current affairs which made some sensational claims about the government and its senior leaders in the run up to the elections. That’s when it was decided that there has to be an accountability measure for these creators as well, to create a level-playing field between mainstream press and independent creators,” the official said.

The expanded remit of the now withdrawn broadcast Bill

The Bill, which sought to replace the 1995 Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, deals with television broadcasting. In November last year, the ministry had invited comments on a draft Bill that consolidated the legal framework for the broadcasting sector and extended it to OTT content and digital news and current affairs as well. However, the new draft Bill, shared privately with some stakeholders last month, significantly altered the focus of the 2023 draft Bill.

The new draft Bill came under intense criticism after it expanded its remit from OTT content and digital news to include social media accounts and online video creators, sought to define a “digital news broadcaster” in sweeping terms to include independent content creators, and proposed prior registration with the government.

There was pushback from independent content creators publicly, and big tech companies privately, over fears of government overreach.

The latest draft sought to define “digital news broadcasters” to include “publisher of news and current affairs content”, which means any person who broadcasts news and current affairs programmes through an online paper, news portal, website, social media intermediary, or other similar medium as part of a systematic business, professional or commercial activity but excluding replica e-papers.

This definition could include users on YouTube, Instagram, and even X, who generate advertising revenue through paid subscriptions or monetise their social media accounts through affiliate activities.

It allowed the government to specify a threshold for the number of subscribers or viewers for OTT broadcasters, who would then have to intimate it of their existence and operations and also adhere to a programme code and an advertisement code.

These online content creators would have to set up a content evaluation committee (CEC), and “strive to make” the committee diverse by including individuals with knowledge of different social groups, women, child welfare, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and minorities. The names of people in their CEC would have to be shared with the government.

Creators would be allowed to only run programmes which are certified by the CEC. However, such certification would not be required for programmes that are already certified for public viewing in India by a statutory body, educational programmes, news and current affairs programmes, live events, animation for children, and other programmes that the government may designate.