New Delhi /Jammu:- The Press and Registration of Periodicals Bill, 2022, which seeks to replace the Press and Registration of Books (PRB) Act, 1867, is likely to be introduced, considered and passed in the monsoon session of Parliament beginning July 18.
The Lok Sabha bulletin said the bill will keep “the procedures of the extant act simple from the view point of medium/small publishers and uphold the values of press freedom.”
Though inter-ministerial discussions on the draft bill have been completed, it is still awaiting the Cabinet’s nod. Once green signalled, the bill is expected to be brought to the Parliament and is one of the 24 new legislations in the legislative business to be taken up by the Lok Sabha during the monsoon session.
Sources said the government thought it was considered expedient to replace the colonial era PRB act, 1867 with the proposed Press and Registration of Periodicals (PRP) Bill in order to bring digital news media under its purview.
At present, while traditional print and electronic media are governed by various laws, digital news platforms are not covered by any registration process and industry associations have pointed out that there was no need to do so. To fix this, last year, the government introduced the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, under which it was made mandatory for digital news platforms to register themselves with the government.
Government sources said the PRP bill will serve as an extension of the same rules and will make it mandatory for digital news platforms to do a “one-time registration” in order to operate. This is also expected to weed out apps, websites and social media accounts which have sprouted in recent months, serving as purveyors of fake news, and against which the government has acted by either taking down the offensive content or banning the concerned platforms.
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