Ministry of Information and Broadcasting heldconsultations in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai over the last one and half yearswherein OTT players have been urged to develop “self-regulatory mechanism”.
According to the official statement by Ministry ofElectronics and Information Technology, the Government studied the models inother countries including Singapore, Australia, EU and UK. It noticed that mostof them either have an institutional mechanism to regulate digital content orare in the process of setting-up one.
According to Meity, the rules establish a soft-touchself-regulatory architecture and a Code of Ethics and three tier grievanceredressal mechanism for news publishers and OTT Platforms and digital media.
Notified under section 87 of InformationTechnology Act, these Rules empower theMinistry of Information and Broadcasting to implement Part-III of the Ruleswhich prescribe the following:
Code of Ethics for online news, OTT platformsand digital media: This Code of Ethics prescribe the guidelines to be followedby OTT platforms and online news and digital media entities.
Self-Classification of Content: The OTTplatforms, called as the publishers of online curated content in the rules,would self-classify the content into five age based categories- U (Universal),U/A 7+, U/A 13+, U/A 16+, and A (Adult). Platforms would be required toimplement parental locks for content classified as U/A 13+ or higher, and reliableage verification mechanisms for content classified as “A”.
The publisher of online curated content shallprominently display the classification rating specific to each content orprogramme together with a content descriptor informing the user about thenature of the content, and advising on viewer description (if applicable) atthe beginning of every programme enabling the user to make an informeddecision, prior to watching the programme.
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Publishers of news on digital media would berequired to observe Norms of Journalistic Conduct of the Press Council of Indiaand the Programme Code under the Cable Television Networks Regulation Actthereby providing a level playing field between the offline (Print, TV) anddigital media.
A three-level grievance redressal mechanism has been established under the rules with different levels ofself-regulation.
Level-I: Self-regulation by the publishers;
Level-II: Self-regulation by theself-regulating bodies of the publishers;
Level-III: Oversight mechanism.
Self-regulation by the Publisher: Publisher shall appoint a Grievance Redressal Officer based inIndia who shall be responsible for the redressal of grievances received by it.The officer shall take decision on every grievance received by it within 15days.
Self-Regulatory Body: There may beone or more self-regulatory bodies of publishers. Such a body shall be headedby a retired judge of the Supreme Court, a High Court or independent eminentperson and have not more than six members. Such a body will have to registerwith the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. This body will oversee theadherence by the publisher to the Code of Ethics and address grievances thathave not be been resolved by the publisher within 15 days.
Oversight Mechanism: Ministry ofInformation and Broadcasting shall formulate an oversight mechanism. It shallpublish a charter for self-regulating bodies, including Codes of Practices. Itshall establish an Inter-Departmental Committee for hearing grievances.
Note: TheMinistry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) prepared draft Rulesand invited public comments on December 24, 2018.
MEITY received 171 comments from individuals, civilsociety, industry association and organizations. 80 counter comments to thesecomments were also received. These comments were analyzed in detail and aninter-ministerial meeting was also held and accordingly, these Rules have beenfinalized.