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I&B Ministry to introduce 3 Bills in budget session

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JAN. 1. Flushed with the success of having piloted three policy changes in the media sector in 2002, the Information & Broadcasting Ministry is working overtime to introduce three legislations that seek to monitor print and broadcasting sectors, besides check piracy, in the coming budget session of Parliament.

Anticipating a delay in the passage of the Convergence Bill — the Standing Committee for Information Technology has suggested 77 amendments to it — the Ministry has decided to draft legislation for the creation of a Broadcasting Council of India along the lines of the Press Council of India.

Though the Ministry's earlier submission that content regulation be kept out of the purview of the proposed Convergence Commission was turned down by the Group of Ministers, the delay in the passage of the Convergence Bill has provided it with a rationale to push for a Broadcasting Council. The proposal, according to the Information & Broadcasting Minister, Sushma Swaraj, has also found the unanimous approval of the Consultative Committee for the Ministry.

The BCI, Ms. Swaraj said, would be an independent regulator and though recommendatory in nature, its mandate would be to ensure that broadcasters abided by the programme code.

Also on the cards was an amendment aimed at giving more powers to the PCI, which had submitted a list of amendments. "These are being considered and we will bring in a bill to amend the existing provisions in the next session,'' Ms. Swaraj said.

The Ministry was also working on an anti-piracy legislation as the Copyright Act was ill-equipped to deal with piracy in both the film and music industry.

The effort would be to introduce it in the budget session.

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