DNA Exclusive: New Bill to crack whip on paid news

In a long-pending move, the government has decided to scrap the 150-year-old archaic Press and Registration of Books Act of 1867, and has drafted a fresh Bill to regulate newspapers and publications as well as their registration. The new Registration of Newspapers and Publications Bill, 2017, has attempted to address the menace of paid news and ghost publications by including several new provisions that detail proposed action against publications involved in paid news and deregistering publications. DNA has seen a copy of the fresh new Bill.

The Bill has proposed pulling out books as well as the printing press of publications from under its purview. The earlier colonial law has stringent provisions governing printing presses and books.

According to top sources, the draft Bill is awaiting clearance from Information and Broadcasting (I&B) minister M Venkaiah Naidu, who is scheduled to hold a meeting on Monday to discuss the subject. The bill will also be put up online for comments from industry stakeholders.

“The 1867 Act was enacted by the British who were wary of any kind of publications and hence its provisions were stringent. But times have changed today, we are in a democracy. The proposed new Bill caters to changing circumstances,” a senior official said.

The new bill has proposed strict action against publications indulging in paid news ranging from suspending the publication for 45 days to canceling its registration.

The provision states if any publication is found to have indulged in or continues indulging in the practice of paid news on the basis of an inquiry held by the Press Council of India under the Press Council Act, 1978, the press registrar general can order suspension of the publication for a period of 45 days.

It further states that if the publication continues to publish paid news even after suspension, the press registrar general can also order cancellation of the registration of the publication. However, the publisher will be given an opportunity to present his view in such a case, the provision mentions.

At present, there is no law to tackle paid news. The Election Commission of India has certain rules on paid news in place, under which it had disqualified Madhya Pradesh minister Narottam Mishra for three years last month.

A new clause in the proposed bill has stated that a verified title of a publication will be de-freezed and will be open for use by other publications, if it has not been brought out as per the declared periodicity for more than a year.

“It has been recommended to keep on hold the title for the certain period, post which it will be open for use to other publications. This is aimed at weeding out certain publications, which do not come out at regular intervals but have still held on to their titles for years,” an official told DNA.

A new provision in the bill also allows deregistration of a publication if it is getting published in contraventions against the proposed bill or if its registration was secured on false information.

The bill would also cover electronic versions of publications and newspapers. However, it is not clear if all news websites, which do not necessarily have a print version, would be under the purview of the bill.

A provision of the bill, however, puts up a strong case for foreign publications, mentioning that Indian publishers may not be able to use titles which are same or similar to titles of “known foreign publications”.