Two industry bodies representing news channels, magazines and newspapers told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology on Thursday that self-regulation is the only way to avoid government interference in regulating news media.
The Editors Guild of India (EGI) and the News Broadcasters and Digital Association (NBDA), along with senior officials from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, appeared before the committee led by BJP Lok Sabha MP Nishikant Dubey. The discussion focused on the issues of weaponization of laws to curb freedom of the press, the functioning of the government’s fact-checking unit and communal and fake news on news channels.
EGI, NBDA and the Ministry have been given 10 days time to submit written replies to the Lok Sabha Secretariat to the questions raised by the committee members.
EGI said that various laws, including the Information Technology Act, are being weaponized to curb the freedom of the press. The guild highlighted Section 353 of the Indian Judicial Code, under which publishing false information with intent to cause enmity is punishable with a prison term of up to three years and/or a fine. EGI said the definitions under the law are vague and prone to abuse.
The guild also said that in September 2024, the Bombay High Court had struck down as unconstitutional the central government’s attempt to set up a state-run fact-checking unit through a 2023 amendment to the IT rules.
Ministry officials, including joint secretary C Senthil Rajan, said that since the amendment was repealed, the fact-checking unit of the Press Information Bureau could only label misleading content related to the central government, but could not issue takedown notices.
Of course, the amendment did not clarify whether the government’s FCU would have expulsion powers, a point of confusion that was debated in detail during court proceedings in the Bombay HC.
At the meeting, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale cited two examples where false information was spread by government officials themselves, but was not fact checked by the PIB FCU. First, when External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a public statement that Canada’s blocking of Australia Today’s social media handles following an interview with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar “exposes the hypocrisy towards Canada.” Freedom of Expression” even though the handle was blocked by Meta due to the platforms’ May 2023 decision to end the availability of news content on its platforms in Canada. Second, when Jaishankar and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had stopped the Ukraine-Russia war.
Gokhale asked whether the Government of India and its ministers and officials are exempted from fact-checking by the PIB FCU, while the unit fact-checks individuals on social media and news organizations. He also sought information about the functioning of the FCU and how many misleading or false claims of the Central Government have been fact checked by the PIB FCU.
MIB officials said PIB FCU did not take suo motu cognizance of the content to fact-check through its social media handles; This depended on complaints made to him and no complaints about false claims were made by government officials. The MPs sought written submissions to this effect.
In the meeting, Dubey said that PIB was established to disseminate information about the central government and it is responsible and accountable not to the people, but to the government.
Gokhale asked MIB officials about the watermarked version of the Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill, which was circulated among select stakeholders in July, which was eventually withdrawn.
Regulating news channels
NBDA Chairman Rajat Sharma told the committee that news broadcasters who are members of NBDA do not interfere in the functioning of its judicial arm, the News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA), which is headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice AK Sikri. Are. ,
Sharma told the committee that many media houses become members of NBDA but when NBDSA issues orders against them, they leave the self-regulatory body so that they do not have to comply. He said that NBDA cannot force people to join it as it is a voluntary exercise.
Anuradha Prasad, honorary treasurer of NBDA (Chairman and MD of News24), suggested to the committee that the government should make registration with a self-regulatory body a mandatory license condition for news channels, a suggestion which Dubey reiterated to MIB officials. .
Gokhale said the penalty amount imposed by NBDSA is limited to a maximum 5 lakh, a modest amount for a show like Sharma, whose advertising revenue for a one-hour show is in the high double digits lakhs. The TMC MP asked how such a small quantity could serve as an effective deterrent. Sharma informed the committee that NBDA is considering revising the penalty 25 lakhs.
Gokhale also said that there was no separate mechanism for channels that repeatedly violated standards and instead, each offense was treated as a first offense. Sharma said that it will be placed before the board.
Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi also alleged that the NBDA/NBDSA was not taking action against repeat violators like News18, which regularly broadcasts “communally charged, misleading and false news”. We do. He cited data from independent fact checker AltNews, according to which despite there being over 300 instances of News18 airing communal programming, the NBDA/NBDSA took action in only five cases.
Lok Sabha MPs Devesh Shakya (Samajwadi Party, Uttar Pradesh) and Rajesh Verma (Lok Jan Shakti Party (Ram Vilas), Bihar) raised the issue of local cable news channel operators and YouTubers running “extortion rackets” where they extort money from politicians. Blackmail to pay. They get paid not to run false and harmful stories about them.
MIB officials said local cable operators were regulated by the district collector or magistrate. Dubey said it was unfair for the MIB to hold the district collector or magistrate responsible for this when they were already burdened with other duties. He told MIB that the ministry cannot escape its responsibility.
Gokhale also raised questions about how social media posts from personal accounts and public presence of channel editors and owners are regulated by the NBDA.
AI generated fake news
Sharma said that he himself has been the target of deepfakes, where deepfake images of him selling some diabetes medicines were being shared on social media.
Chaturvedi on Tuesday raised the issue of news channels airing AI generated voice notes posted by the BJP on the eve of Maharashtra Assembly elections. He said that all channels continued to run synthetic voice notes as fact without comparing their existing records with the voices of public figures.
On Wednesday itself, after independent fact-checker BOOM said three out of four voice notes were definitely fake, some news channels started fact-checking BJP’s tweets, he said at the meeting. He asked the NBDA whether it had circulated any advice to its members, asking them to check facts, whether any member had done so, and how the agenda of prime time debate shows was set.
In response, Prasad said at the meeting that political parties also have to take responsibility for the fake news being spread as they have an entire ecosystem (referring to ‘troll armies’ and ‘IT cells’) to spread misinformation.
Indian Press Council issues
EGI also expressed concern over the Press Council of India, especially the selection of its Chairman. EGI said the PCI has become partisan and instead of being accountable to Parliament as required under the Press Council Act, 1978, it has been cornered by the executive.
Dubey said that the rules for selecting the PCI president have remained unchanged since 1978, to which EGI said that it was not just the present government but every successive government had made the PCI toothless. The guild offered to make a written presentation about the problems in the selection of the PCI president, which Dubey accepted.
Under the PCI Act, the PCI Chairman is nominated by a committee consisting of the Rajya Sabha Speaker, the Lok Sabha Speaker and a person elected by the Council nominated by the Central Government.
