Govt mulls PCI recommendation for bringing electronic media under its ambit

NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari told Parliament today that the government is considering the proposal by the Press Council of India for bringing the electronic media under its ambit.

Tewari said the Council had initially also wanted social media to be brought under its ambit, but later dropped this clause.

He said while web and social media has emerged as one of the important public communication channels, a lot of inflammatory and offensive information is also posted on the web and social media.

He said that the government supports social media for citizen centric and collaborative governance and has notified a framework comprising detailed guidelines for use of social media in the Government.

The Information Technology Act 2000 empowers the Government to block such malicious information hosted on Internet and social media sites which may play havoc with the lives of the people. The Act and Rules also provide safeguards to prevent misuse of such provisions.