Scribes write to Smriti over online norms

A group of over 100 journalists and professionals related to online media on Tuesday wrote to Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani to express concern over the Ministry’s proposal to regulate online content.

Among the journalists who signed the petition are Quint founder Raghav Bahl, The Wire founding editor M.K. Venu, Senior journalist Nalini Singh, The News Minute founder Dhanya Rajendran, senior journalist Seema Mustafa.

On April 4, the Ministry constituted a committee to come up with regulations similar to that of print and electronic media for online media.

In their e-mail, the media professionals said that it would be wrong to say that there are no norms for content on the internet. “Even a cursory reading of the IT Act would reveal that all content is covered under its scope. ”

They also said that the online medium cannot be compared to print and television, because most of the contents are produced by individual citizens in exercise of their right to freedom of expression.