Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to bring e-papers & digital news under its gambit

In a bid to regularise e-papers and digital news, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has put forward a draft Registration of Press and Periodicals Bill, 2019, to replace the existing Press and Registration of Books (PRB) Act, 1867. The proposal is to bring the platforms of e-papers and digital news under the gambit of the ministry’s governance. The draft bill also proposes to have a simple system of registration of e-papers.

The bill proposes to remove the existing provisions relating to registration of books and matters connected thereto. It also talks about doing away with the existing procedure of furnishing of declaration by publishers/printers before the district magistrate and its subsequent authentication.

According to the draft bill, the ‘process of title and registration of periodicals’ including newspapers, is proposed to be effected centrally by the Press Registrar General as a simultaneous mechanism.