The controversial Draft Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, which led to many debates and raised questions, has been withdrawn by the Centre on Monday.

The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) said that it was ‘working’ on the draft bill but, “A fresh draft will be published after detailed consultations.”

It said that multiple recommendations/ comments/ suggestions were received including from various associations on the draft bill and the Ministry is holding a series of consultations with the stakeholders on the draft bill.

“Further additional time is being provided to solicit comments/ suggestions till October 15, 2024,” the MIB said in a statement.

The draft Bill was placed in public domain on November 10 last year, along with the explanatory notes for comments of the stakeholders and the general public.

However, it drew many concerns over some of the provisions and also how the consultation process was being conducted. One major controversy was over the provisions that could potentially tag online influencers as broadcasters, if they dealt with matters of current affairs in their work.

The draft Bill drew criticism from media bodies such as DigiPub and Editors Guild of India which claimed that digital media organisations and civil society associations were not consulted on the move.

“This is a broad coalition of diverse individuals, groups and organisations who have stood up and asked the government for transparency and contested political censorship. Hope that MIB practices the pre-legislative consultation process in letter and spirit for future legal proposals,” Apar Gupta, lawyer Nd co-founder of Internet Freedom Foundation wrote on X.

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