Stakeholders plan to approach the government to seek clarifications on the broadcasting and information ministry's plan to issue a fresh draft of the broadcasting services bill, as there is confusion over which version would be up for discussion.
In a post on the X platform, formerly Twitter, the ministry late on August 12 referred to the first draft of the bill, released in November 2023, and said consultations would continue till October 15 after which a fresh draft would be issued.
"There is a sense that they are almost nullifying the 2024 secret version. Hence, they were asking for the copies back," a source said.
The draft of the Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, 2024 was released to a few stakeholders for consultations and was not shared publicly. The ministry reportedly asked all who got the physical copies to return the draft.
On August 12, Moneycontrol was the first to report that the government made one-on-one calls to industry stakeholders, asking them to return the 2024 version of the draft without any comments.
The first draft was publicly released in November. Subsequently, consultations were held and tweaks made.
Sources said consultations on the first draft was taken up in May to understand the concerns of different industry stakeholders — broadcasters, OTTs and distributors. To be clear, the public consultation on the draft ended in January. These consultations, Moneycontrol has learnt, with the industry were behind closed doors.
"In May, the government had circulated 14 small corrections on the first draft, on which the government had asked the industry to comment on. In these 14 small corrections, there were a lot of minor tweaks, a lot of the language was clarified," an industry stakeholder said.
For instance, the executive said, in the original 2023 version, the industry had raised concerns regarding the stringent requirements for content evaluation committees (CEC). These measures were ultimately relaxed, as part of the 14 tweaks made by the government, the source explained.
"If the consultations will be now held on the 2023 draft, will it be held on the original version or the updated versions that incorporated the submissions from various consultations that took place?"
Lawyer and policy expert Apar Gupta also echoed the similar concerns about the ministry's post.
"Which version of the draft are you extending further time for comments? BRS (Broadcasting Services Regulation) 2023 or BRS 2024? Have you published an official notice for it if it is for the BRS, 2023? Can the public send further comments to it,” Gupta said in an X post.
"If not, are you extending time for comments to the BRS, 2024 from private stakeholders till October 15? If you are extending the timeline for feedback by two months why not make the latest draft, i.e. BRS, 2024 and invite public comments?"
Update: 12.38 pm, August 13: Updated with more clarity on the type of consultations that took place in May, and an example of the kind of tweaks that were reportedly made in the 2023 draft of the Broadcasting Services(Regulation) Bill.
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