Three years later, the central government is reviving its 2019 plan to introduce legislation that will replace the the archaic Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867. The proposed bill is a "new registration regime" for newspapers but will also include India's digital news media industry, Economic Times reported.
After no progress since 2019, ET said "all inter-ministerial and other stakeholder consultations have now been completed" and the legislation will be sent to Cabinet for approval so it "can be taken to Parliament at the earliest".
Newslaundry had reported on this at length in 2019, when the I&B ministry put out a notice inviting public comments for the proposed Registration of Press and Periodicals Bill, 2019.
The draft bill had defined digital news media as "news in digitized format that can be transmitted over the internet, computer or mobile networks and includes text, audio, video and graphics" – a definition that can basically apply to the whole of the internet.
At the time, it was unclear whether this would include "news" transmitted on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, or even YouTube.
The draft bill also seeks to scrap the 1867 act which includes clause 19A, under which the Registrar of Newspapers of India was established. Instead, the draft law appoints a Press Registrar General who will do the job of the registrar.
Simultaneously, the draft bill includes a clause that requires publishers of news on digital media to register with...the Registrar of Newspapers of India.
Confused? Read our detailed piece for more.
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