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The government has decided to allow all registered Indian newspapers to enter into syndication arrangements with foreign publications, subject to the fulfillment of certain guidelines.
According to the automatic approval route decided by the government, the total material procured through syndication and actually printed in an Indian publication should not exceed 7.5 per cent of the total printed area of that issue.
The guidelines also stipulated that the syndicated material should not include the entire editorial page or the front page of the foreign publication. Moreover, the masthead of the content provider should not be used in the Indian publication.
The guidelines further said the credit to the content provider would have to be necessarily given prominently as a byline in the Indian publication.
Further, the content procured by the Indian company should not be meant for exclusive publication in India and should be previously published by the content provider.
The guidelines, issued today, also said the cases involving relaxation of the guidelines would, however, require the prior approval of the ministry of information and broadcasting.
These new guidelines would, however, not apply to cases in which the ministry of information and broadcasting had already approved the publication of an Indian edition of a foreign magazine, journal or newspaper.
The present syndication policy allows Indian newspapers and periodicals to procure materials, like photographs, cartoons, crossword puzzles, articles, features etc, from foreign publications for use in Indian publications.
The syndication arrangements need the prior approval of the ministry of information and broadcasting.
New guidelines