[Reader-list] I&B now sets sights on online news

[Shivam Vij]

These loonies...



I&B now sets sights on online news

Pankaj Doval
Posted online: Thursday , October 04, 2007 at 0119 hrs IST
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/IB-now-sets-sights-on-online-news/224253/

New Delhi, Oct 3 After lording it over television broadcasts and radio
channels, the information & broadcasting ministry now seeks to control
the Internet. In a move that has been widely criticised as
"impractical", "regressive" and even "undemocratic" by experts and
online operators, the I&B ministry wants to bring under its
jurisdiction all online news and current affairs, including
international websites.

This effectively means that online editions of foreign papers like The
Washington Post, The Guardian or The Times would first need to
register in India, like domestic newspapers do with RNI, before being
legally available, or else face a blackout.

According to official sources, the exercise is being taken up by the
I&B ministry as part of efforts to overhaul the archaic Press &
Registration of Books Act of 1867 "to make it contemporary and attune
it to present day realities and situation". Sources told FE that the
ministry has already prepared a draft proposal, though a Bill on the
subject may not be out any time soon.

Nasscom president Kiran Karnik termed any such move a "regressive
step" and added that the government should stay out such areas. "The
Internet worldwide is a free medium. On possible violations, I believe
we broadly have laws to take care of any such deviations," he said.

Cyber law expert Pavan Duggal said it was "neither practical, feasible
nor prudent" to mandate registration for online newspapers. "You are
not living in a country like China. We are a democracy and should go
by its spirit," he said. Duggal said unlike newspapers, which had a
physical form, the Internet was an altogether different paradigm. "You
can't compare the two."

He, however, said there was need for formation of "self regulation
codes" by the online industry itself.