Context: Recently, the Central Government has announced new guidelines for digital news platforms.

Key Facts

Who will these guidelines apply to: The guidelines will be applicable to the following categories of entities registered or located in India:

• Digital media entities which streams/uploads news and current affairs on websites, apps or other platforms.
• News agency which gathers, writes and distributes/transmits news, directly or indirectly, to digital media entities and/or news aggregators.

News aggregator: It is an entity which uses software of web applications to aggregate news content from various sources, such as news websites, blogs, podcasts, video blogs, user submitted links in one location.

What are the Guidelines for Digital Media?

• The government has put emphasis on compliance to the 26% Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) cap under the government approval route in digital media.
• 26% FDI through the government approval route in the digital media sector was brought in 2019.FDI in print media is capped at 26% and that in TV news is 49%.
• The majority of the directors on the company’s board and the Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of the company would have to be an Indian citizen.
• All foreign employees working for more than 60 days would need security clearance.If the government denies or withdraw security clearance, the digital media company will ensure that the concerned person resigns or his/her services are terminated.