{"id":255324,"date":"2023-08-08T20:29:48","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T14:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=255324"},"modified":"2023-08-29T15:59:26","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T10:29:26","slug":"expanding-powers-the-registration-bill-is-as-draconian-as-the-old-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/expanding-powers-the-registration-bill-is-as-draconian-as-the-old-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Expanding powers – The registration Bill is as draconian as the old one"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cExpanding powers – The registration Bill is as draconian as the old one<\/strong>\u201d published in Business Standard <\/strong>on\u00a08th<\/sup> August 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS 2 \u2013 Governance \u2013 Government Policies & Intervention<\/strong><\/p>\n

Relevance: <\/strong>concerns with <\/strong>the Press and Registration of Periodicals Bill, 2023.<\/p>\n

News:<\/strong> Recently, the Press and Registration of Periodicals Bill, 2023<\/strong> was passed in the Rajya Sabha. It repeals the Press and Registration of Books, 1867.<\/p>\n

What are some of the provisions of the Bill?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Bill simplifies the registration process, excludes scientific and academic journals from its purview, and decriminalizes the offence of filing improper information.<\/p>\n

What are the concerns with the Bill?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

First,<\/strong> the legislation grants an excessive amount of authority to the press registrar general, a government-appointed official.<\/p>\n

Under Sections 4(1) and 11(4) of the Bill<\/strong>, the registrar general is empowered to deny approval or revoke the registration certificate of any owner or publisher who has been convicted by a court for engaging in “terrorist or unlawful activity” or \u201chaving done anything against the security of the State\u201d.<\/p>\n

Both Sections specify that the definitions of “terrorist act” and “unlawful activities” are outlined in specific clauses of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA<\/strong>), 1967.<\/p>\n

However, these terms are phrased in such a way that they can be interpreted broadly or narrowly at the discretion of the authorities.<\/p>\n

This brings a sense of ambiguity and makes it possible for any news publication<\/strong> to have its registration cancelled if the registrar general deems it unfit.<\/p>\n

Second,<\/strong> the Bill allows the registrar general to enter premises to verify information.<\/p>\n

Third,<\/strong> it also allows the registrar general to appoint other agencies to monitor a publication\u2019s functions.<\/p>\n

Fourth,<\/strong> the Bill grants the government the authority to establish regulations governing the practice of news publishing.<\/p>\n

This has been done to align with the government’s establishment of a “fact-checking unit” as per the Information Technology Rules of 2021<\/strong>, which gives the powers to order content to be taken down.<\/p>\n

What can be the way ahead?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The government should refer the Bill to a committee for deeper deliberations before the Lok Sabha passes it because in its current form, it cannot be described as an exemplar of Indian democracy in practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cExpanding powers – The registration Bill is as draconian as the old one\u201d published in Business Standard on\u00a08th August 2023. Syllabus: GS 2 \u2013 Governance \u2013 Government Policies & Intervention Relevance: concerns with the Press and Registration of Periodicals Bill, 2023. News: Recently, the Press and Registration of… Continue reading Expanding powers – The registration Bill is as draconian as the old one<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[10503,212,225],"class_list":["post-255324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-business-standard","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-polity","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704923082},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}