New Delhi: The ministry of information and broadcasting has written to chief secretaries of all states and administrators of union territories clarifying that the powers in regard to the recent rules for digital media are administered only by it. The letter has underlined that these powers have not been delegated to the state governments, district magistrates or police commissioners.
The move comes on the heels of the Manipur government issuing a notice to online news portal, The Frontier Manipur, under the newly-laid rules, following which MIB wrote to the Manipur chief secretary stating that the state government has not been delegated any power to seek documents from digital media platforms under the new rules.
“It has also been requested that this information be brought to the notice of all concerned persons in states and UTs," the latest MIB letter states besides clarifying the provisions of rules which relate to publishers of digital news and current affairs and publishers of online curated content (OTT platforms). The rules, the letter adds, provide for a Code of Ethics to be followed by digital news publishers and publishers of OTT content, which includes five tiers of age-based classification. Further, they require a three-level grievance redressal mechanism consisting of the publisher, a self-regulating body constituted by the publishers and an oversight mechanism of the central government, with a time-bound grievance disposal mechanism.
Additionally, the rules require furnishing of information by the publishers to the government and periodical disclosure of information regarding grievance redressal in public domain.
Earlier this week, the district magistrate in Imphal had served a notice to Khanasi Neinasi, The Frontier Manipur’s talk show to furnish relevant documents that ensure compliance with the provisions of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code), Rules, 2021.
Last week, digital news sites had written to the government, urging it to reconsider its decision to include news media as intermediaries like social media sites as regulating content would have a profound impact on the media’s independence.
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