Digital Dialogues: Different kinds of censorship, thanks to the broadcast regulation bill

Last month, the central government introduced the draft Broadcasting Services Regulation Bill which, if passed, will likely affect not only platforms like Netflix and Prime Video but also news websites and journalists too.

This is why it was a topic of discussion at Digital Dialogues, a day-long event organised by Digipub to explore India’s digital ecosystem. The session “OTT’s way ahead: Implications of the Broadcasting Regulation Bill” was moderated by Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri. Panellists included Alok Prasanna, Abhishek Malhotra, Vibodh Parthasarathi and Anna MM Vetticad.

Anna, a film critic, said, “OTTs don’t have to publish censored versions of films. Now, scripts are being looked at for if there’s anything that would offend the Hindutva universe…Did you praise Nehru in your film? If yes, then your script will not be passed.”

Alok said if he were on an OTT legal panel, he wouldn’t be “concerned about the content”. “I would wonder – why are you still in this country? We are in a country where you just need to catch someone, anyone. The actual law is thus irrelevant.”

Watch.

Text by Aarshi Rai.