Govt may revise Press Act to cover news portals, web editions

NEW DELHI: The 140-year-old Press and Registration of Books Act, enacted during the British period, may undergo extensive overhaul to bring into its ambit the online news portals and web editions of newspapers.

Till now the PRB Act of 1867 had been covering only the hard copy editions of printed newspapers and books. Online news portals and web editions of newspapers did not fall within its jurisdiction.

"The print is no longer the print on paper we have had. It has also gone online on computer screens instead of the paper. The press is no longer the old galley printing press. A paper now can be published in facsimile form through dedicated telecom lines in distant cities," a senior official of the ministry of information and broadcasting told PTI.
The ministry is now keen on changing and redefining the definition of many operative terms, such as "print", "newspaper" or the "magistrate".

Rejecting reports that the government was eyeing the online and Internet editions with a view to controlling them, the official said the old law was being considered for change only because it has "not changed with the evolving technologies and new administrative and ownership models".

"In fact the existing Act is a regulatory act. But the revised law would be an enabling one because it will rather facilitate, rather than hinder, the growth of print media industry," the official claimed.