Creative autonomy necessary, but with safeguards: Anurag Thakur

Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Sunday made a strong pitch for creative autonomy and said there were adequate safeguards in place for monitoring content on OTT platforms. "Creativity should not be reined in, it should have autonomy. But it should not be too much that anything can be shown. We have kept adequate provisions and till date they are working fine," Thakur said, participating in the 75th anniversary celebrations of 'Panchajanya' weekly, the RSS mouthpiece.

Thakur said creative autonomy was necessary with adequate safeguards to ensure that it was not misused.

He said the ministry does receive complaints about content on over-the-top (OTT) platforms, but almost 95 per cent grievances are settled at the level of producers, while others get resolved at the second stage of the association of publishers of the content.

The minister said only one per cent complaints reach the inter-departmental committee and it is ensured that strict action is taken in such cases.

Thakur said in some cases, content has also been taken down from the platform.

Similar action has been taken against peddlers of fake news and the government is considering legal recourse against a Madhya Pradesh-based YouTube channel in this regard, he said.