Public meeting at Press Club of India tomorrow to discuss draft IT Rules

The Press Club of India (PCI) has announced that its managing committee is organising a joint public meeting with other journalistic bodies tomorrow at 4 pm at its premises to discuss the draft Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Second Amendment Rules, 2026 (draft IT Rules) issued on March 30. 

The press bodies attending the meeting will include DIGIPUB, the Indian Women's Press Corps (IWPC), the Network of Women in Media (NWMI), the Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ), and others. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has set an April 14 deadline for public feedback for the draft IT Rules. 

In a letter today, the PCI wrote: 

“We thank all PCI members who sent in their feedback, as requested, and thereby engaged in the process of involving all of you on this matter of deep concern about the future of journalism, our bread and butter, and also its impact on Freedom of Speech granted by the Constitution to all of us as citizens of this great country. Much as we need to engage with the government with our suggestions, it also necessitates urgent conversations with fellow journalist bodies about our common concerns about the draft amendments.”

In this report, Newslaundry outlined how these proposed amendments subject individual journalists and social media users to the same restrictive blocking and oversight provisions that were previously reserved for news publishers. The proposed amendments will significantly impact journalism by granting the government suo motu powers to flag content and mandating that platforms comply with MeitY-issued advisories, even if they are not formal laws. This shift allows authorities to bypass traditional legal hurdles to proactively remove ‘news-like’ content. Consequently, it formalises a system of continuous oversight that can stifle independent reporting through immediate, emergency-blocking powers.

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