IT Committee’s demand for setting up a media commission rejected by MIB

Anurag Thakur, minister of Information & Broadcasting, has announced that setting up a media commission currently is unnecessary, thereby rejecting Standing Committee on Communications & Technology’s recommendation mentioned in its twenty-seventh Report. Thakur has stated that the government takes note of information, statistics from numerous sources before creating strategies, formulating policies and that it holds regular meetings, discussions with the stakeholders in this regard.
The IT Committee, which is headed by Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP, has made the recommendation of setting up a media commission in order to examine all aspects of the twenty-seventh report named ‘Ethical Standards in Media Coverage’, in December of 2021.
The report has made recommendations of restructuring the Press Council Of India (PCI) and to establish a media council covering digital, electronic and print media. It stated that the media commission should be an extensive body which involves all the stakeholders, experts and should be instructed to submit its report within the deadline, suggesting that its report should be present within six months of starting its tenure. The committee also suggested to remove the ambiguous nature surrounding a term mentioned in Rule 6(1)(e) of the Cable Network rules, 2014, called as ‘Anti national attitude’.
The committee asked MIB to manage the ill-defined areas surrounding FDI regulations in media. MIB was also asked to look into the matter of paid news to execute the recommendation of the Law Commission in order to name paid news as an electoral offence.