Areena Parveen Ansari, Assistant Professor, Dharmashastra National Law University, Jabalpur
ABSTRACT
Media is growing exceptionally as a consequence of Digitalisation. Needless to say, contemporary media practices encompass a vast variety of creative ideas, literature, information, and a diversity of content that are readily available and distributable across the globe. The categorisation of media as per contemporary practices is Print Media, Electronic Media, and Cyber/Internet/Digital Media. The robust media is Cyber Media and it is Cyber Media inclusive of social media that makes the dissemination of information quite expedient and easily accessible. The Print Media and Electronic Media had sundry barriers primarily owing to their inability to spread worldwide, which Cyber Media brim over with. Cyber Media eclipsed Print and Electronic Media and emerged as one medium that encompasses all genres of Media. However, the formers are more soundly regulated than the latter. Cyber Media even today is unfiltered and demi regulated. Nonetheless, there are strewn laws that deal with the content of Cyber Media, in particular, the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021. However, existing laws on Cyber Media are incompetent in providing comprehensive legislation for the curtailment of Freedom of Speech and Expression (guaranteed under Article 19 1(a) and the Right to Privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, 1949). The Print Media among all media is efficiently regulated by the Press Council of India (hereafter PCI) constituted under the Press Council Act, of 1978. The PCI judiciously introduces and amends the comprehensive code of conduct for the journalist, the most recent is the Norms of Journalistic Conduct, 2020. Electronic Media traditionally evolved as Radio, Film, and Television to an extent Internet. Electronic Media is under the control of the News Broadcasters Association established in 2007 and since 2021 it is known as the News Broadcasters & Digital Association. In addition, there are other laws, rules, and certain guidelines implemented by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to regulate the broadcast, programme, and contents thereof.
Keywords: Media, Digital Media, Electronic Media, Cyber Media, Regulation, Freedom of Speech, and Expression.
