The Central Government has decided to put the Broadcasting Bill 2024 on hold for the time being. The government has said that a new draft of this bill will be prepared after extensive deliberations. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) had drafted the new Broadcasting Regulation Bill in November last year. The deadline for public comment on the draft of this bill was 15 January 2024.
The second draft of the Broadcasting Bill was prepared in July this year. Regarding the Broadcasting Bill 2024, the opposition had alleged that the amended draft was ‘secretly’ leaked among some select stakeholders even before it was tabled in Parliament. Digital news publishers and individual content creators were also opposing this bill.