Taking note of the opposition to the controversial broadcast Bill, the Prime Minister?s Office (PMO) is understood to have asked the information and broadcasting ministry to hold wider consultations with the industry before taking a final view on the matter.
Highly placed sources told FE that the PMO has called for ?wider consultations? before finalisation of draft of the Bill that seeks to regulate the electronic media industry, including news channels. The government was close to submitting a draft broadcast Bill in the monsoon session but is understood to have backed out after its proposals met with stiff resistance from the stakeholders of the electronic media industry. While criticising many of the proposals in the Bill, the industry demanded that the government delay tabling of the Bill by at least 12 months so that fresh round of consultations could be held.
The Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill, 2007, provided for the formation of a regulator, the Broadcast Regulatory Authority of India (Brai), to tackle issues related to the sector. Also, it sought to put in place a multi-layered system to get in self regulation within the media. The proposed Bill also gives powers to the government to take control of and manage the media in certain eventualities and imposes public service broadcasting obligations on them. It also gives powers to authorised officers to seize and confiscate equipment of channels in case of specified violations.