Indian Newspaper Society wants to be excluded from new IT rules

INS has said that news websites of traditional papers follow the same stringent guidelines for publication as followed by newspapers, and should be exempt from the new IT Rules

The Indian Newspaper Soc­iety has written to the Prime Minister and the Inform­ation and Broadcasting Minister to exclude traditional newspapers from the recently ann­ounced Infor­mation Techn­ology Rules for social media intermediaries and digital publishers. INS has said that news websites of traditional papers follow the same stringent guidelines for publication as followed by newspapers, and should be exempted from the new IT Rules.
 
“The print media in India is responsible and credible, following stringent editing and fact checking norms by Editors everyday. Our newspaper digital websites are produced from the newspapers newsroom and follow the same guidelines,” INS has said in the letter to PM Narendra Modi. It has further said that exemptions should be provided to newspapers registered wfh the Registrar of Newspapers in India as they fall under the Press and Registration of Books Act.
 
The PRB Act is a Parliamentary law, and has “stronger legal force” than the IT rules, which are subordinate legislation under the IT Act, INS added. It also said the new rules amount to “regulatory overreach and is unnecessary to ask the news organisations to follow ano­ther set of rules, which are meant primarily for categories of organisations and intermediaries who are not covered by the PRB Act”.