SC gives NBDA 4 weeks’ time to come up with fresh guidelines for self-regulation of media

The court said it wants to ‘tighten up’ the self-regulatory mechanism

by e4m Staff
Published: Sep 18, 2023 3:26 PM | 1 min read

The Supreme Court has reportedly asked News Broadcasters and Digital Association (NBDA) to submit fresh guidelines to “tighten up” the self-regulatory mechanism of monitoring TV news channels. According to a media report, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra has given NBDA four weeks’ time for this.

The Bench took note of submissions that the NBDA was already working on the guidelines in consultation with its present and former chairpersons, Justice (retd) A K Sikri and R V Raveendran, respectively.

Meanwhile, the News Broadcaster Federation of India (NBFI), through its counsel said that it should also be permitted to submit its own self regulations since it is the only regulatory body registered with the Centre as per the 2022 rules, unlike NBDA. Replying to the request, the court said “that suggestions and guidelines are welcome.”

To which the court reportedly replied, “We cannot sort out your ideological differences (NBDA and NBFI) here. We do not want this plea to get lost in the cacophony of rival organisations. We will see their regulations and then see yours as well,” the CJI said.

Earlier, the apex court had expressed that the existing self-regulatory mechanism to monitor TV news channels was not satisfactory and had asked the government response on making it “more effective”.