NEW DELHI: An order by the Manipur government to an Imphal-based news website “The Frontier Manipur”, asking the portal to furnish relevant documents showing compliance to digital media regulations introduced by the Union government last week, led the information and broadcasting ministry on Tuesday to clarify that state governments, district magistrates or police commissioners are not empowered to administer the Information Technology (intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
On Monday, Naorem Praveen, deputy commissioner of Imphal West, had served a notice on the publisher/intermediary of “Khanasi Neinasi”, a weekly online discussion, of The Frontier Manipur (TFM), in which he directed the website to furnish “all relevant documents for ensuring compliance”, failing which “steps as deemed fit would be initiated without further notice”.
In a letter to the Manipur chief secretary on Tuesday, Union I&B secretary Amit Khare said the rules relating to news publishers and publishers of OTT platforms, including code of ethics and the three-tier redressal mechanism and requirement to furnish information can only be administered by the I&B ministry. He also said these powers have not been delegated to state governments.
Following Khare’s intervention, the notice issued by the Imphal West DC was retracted. The fresh notice, that said “It is to inform you that this office notice even dated March 1, 2021 served to you stands withdrawn with immediate effect”, was pasted outside the journalist’s residence.