‘Throwing digital-only publishers under the bus’: New media slams DNPA opting out of digital media rules

On Thursday, union minister Prakash Javadekar met with members of the Digital News Publishers Association to discuss the Centre’s new digital media rules. The DNPA, which comprises print and TV media “with a digital presence”, asked the government to let “treat them differently” from digital-only media houses, according to a statement later issued by the ministry of information and broadcasting.

The DNPA subsequently tweeted that the meeting with Javadekar had been “constructive”.

The DNPA representatives at the meeting were from India Today, Dainik Bhaskar, Hindustan Times, Indian Express, the Times of India, ABP, Eenadu, Dainik Jagran and Lokmat. Out of the nine, seven represent newspapers. The other two are news channels.

Digital-only platforms were not invited. This is important, especially when read with the fact that digital platforms have described the rules as “going against the fundamental principle of news”. The media houses at Thursday’s meeting represented their own interests, not the interests of digital portals.

Significantly, Digipub, a consortium of 11 digital portals, had asked the government to consult with stakeholders but received no response. The Wire’s founding trust and the News Minute’s Dhanya Rajendran even petitioned the high court, pointing out that the rules “are creating a whole mechanism for government intrusion”. So did Live Law, which said the rules will make it impossible for small outlets to function.

Unsurprisingly, journalists and editors with digital outlets slammed the DNPA’s demand to be excluded from the rules, stating that “traditional media” had thrown digital outlets under the bus.