Hyderabad: The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) takes strong objection to the efforts of the Union Government to control digital media. In a statement issued on Thursday K. Sreenivas Reddy and Balwinder Singh, Jammu President and Secretary-General of IJU flagged the Gazette notification issued by the Government bringing OTT platforms and all kinds of digital news and current affairs content under the purview of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and demanded the Government to withdraw the notification.
Presently there is neither law nor any regulatory mechanism to govern digital media. The IJU leaders drew the attention of the Government to the long pending demand of the Union to constitute a media regulatory authority on the lines of the Press Council to include both electronic and digital media.
It is not acceptable to the IJU that I&B Ministry is given authority to govern any media including digital media, the leaders said and reiterated the demand to immediately constitute Media Council.
It is worth mentioning here the Chairman, Press Council of India also expressed his opposition to the move. Though there is no clarity yet on how the Government intends to govern the digital media IJU views it as an effort to rein in independent media which is critical of the Government thereby curbing media freedom.
The IJU is aware of the unhealthy trends prevailing on the internet and the immoral, indecent and hate-mongering content pushed through in the name of digital news and is not averse to curbing such sleaze.
But even that activity should flow through an independent regulatory mechanism instead of the Government taking the job into its hands. Government stepping into the realm of media regulation is the first step to authoritarian rule the IJU leaders said.
