New Press Act, soon: Soni

Aiming to block frivolous and non-serious publications from coming up in the country, government is in the process of amending the over 140-years old Press and Registration of Books (PRB) Act.

"Though the Act of 1867 has been amended on earlier occasions also, there is a need to drastically amend it, and I admit it should have been done some time ago, as its provisions currently are inadequate," Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni said here today.

"By March 31, 2010, we will put up a draft of the amended Act on the Ministry's website and will then seek comments from various stakeholders before sending it to Parliament," she added.

Addressing publishers at the Indian Magazine Congress 2009, Soni said the amended Act would be known as Press and Registration of Publications Act 2009 and it will look into blocking frivolous and non-serious publications from coming up, among other issues.

"The preamble of the Act will be modified to include provisions for FDI, facsimile editions of foreign publications and Indian editions of foreign publications.

"Also, it will have provisions for newspapers and magazines, as earlier there was no separate definition for magazines under the Act. However, registration of books would not be covered under the new provisions of the Act," the Minister said.

Soni added the new provisions are currently being vetted by the Law Ministry and once this is done, the draft will be put up on the I&B ministry's website. It will then be discussed among stakeholders.

She urged foreign publishers to tap the vibrant Indian language magazine sector, saying: "There are more than 27,500 publications in Hindi which come out of northern India alone. Indian language publications market has done well despite the economic downturn. I am happy to note that India is the second largest print market in the world."

Soni said the Ministry has been, time and again, urged to accept TRAI's recommendation to increase FDI cap in the news and current affairs publications from the current 26 per cent to 49 per cent.

"I feel that the industry should discuss this issue among itself as there is another section which feels that the FDI cap should not be enhanced. So greater consultation is required in this issue," she said.