Explained: What the Registration of Press and Periodicals Bill means for the industry

Among the Centre's Bills to be introduced in the Monsoon Session is the Registration of Press and Periodicals Bill, which is aimed at regulating the digital news media industry. Here's what we know so far:

The Registration of Press and Periodicals Bill is aimed at replacing the British-era Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867, which regulates presses and newspapers in the country.

The proposed legislation will bring digital news media under the control of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Once the law gets the Parliament’s nod, digital media houses will have to register with the Press Registrar General within 90 days. The government entity will have the power to act against digital publications for violations and can suspend or cancel registrations and impose penalties.

At present, registration does not exist for digital news portals.

"The Bill seeks to replace the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867, by decriminalisation of the existing Act, keeping the procedures of the extant Act simple from the viewpoint of medium/small publishers and uphold the values of Press Freedom," said a government communication to the Parliament.

An appellate body will be set up under the Bill and its chairman will be the chairperson of the Press Council of India, said an official at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

In 2019, the Centre had released a draft Registration of Press and Periodicals Bill that defined "news on digital media" as "news in digitised format that can be transmitted over the internet, computer, mobile networks and includes text, audio, video and graphics".

The 2019 draft Bill faced accusations that the legislation was the Centre's attempt to exert control over digital news media entities. The Centre decided to shelve the draft Bill at that time but it has now been revived and it's pushing forward.

(With inputs from agencies)