By Manish Chand, IANS
New Delhi : With the contentious broadcast bill in limbo, the government is now planning to come out with fresh legislation that will put all existing guidelines for broadcasting in an overarching framework.
The Broadcasting Validation of Guidelines Bill is likely to be tabled in the next session of parliament.
“The bill will provide statutory support and framework to all the existing guidelines to regulate broadcasting in all sectors, including DTH and FM,” Asha Swarup, secretary in the ministry of information and broadcasting, told IANS.
Swarup rebutted speculation that the government was planning to come out with an ordinance to enforce validation of the guidelines.
“There is no plan for an ordinance. It’s going to be a bill in parliament. We are trying our best to present the bill in the forthcoming session of parliament,” she said.
“The bill is in an embryonic stage,” Swarup said. She, however, refused to disclose the details, saying that it was too premature to comment and she wanted to avoid any controversy such as was created by the Broadcast Bill even when it was in its drafting stages.
Unlike the Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill, the new bill is a practical step to systematise different guidelines for uplinking and downlinking and does not intend to include content regulation in its ambit.
Last year, the broadcasting regulation bill and the proposed content code faced stiff resistance from TV channels and other stake-holders as it was widely seen as a tool to curb the freedom of the media.
Despite several meetings with the stakeholders, the government could not resolve the impasse and failed to table it in parliament.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi has batted vigorously for the broadcasting bill, saying it is the most democratic legislation in the entire world as far as the electronic media is concerned.
The government has tried to create a democratic debate over the Content Code by placing the code and the bill on the information and broadcasting ministry’s website www.mib.nic.in.