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CCI to have separate bureaux on content, carriage

The stage seems all set for the long-awaited Convergence Bill to be given a final shape with Group on Telecom and IT on Thursday agreeing on setting up two separate bureaux for content and carriage under the proposed super-regulator Communications Commission of India.

The bureau for content regulation under CCI would comprise of people concerned with art, literature, education and consumers while carriage would be overseen by technical experts, Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj told PTI after a three hour meeting of the GoT-IT.

The sub-group under Fali Nariman which is meeting on Saturday has been asked to make the necessary changes in the draft bill after which it would be forwarded to Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, who heads the GoT-IT. The bill would then be presented to the prime minister.

The suggestion to have a separate body for content regulation had been put forward at the July 11 meeting by Swaraj, who was of the view that content needed a different regime of regulation from carriage, which would be addressed by technically-oriented people.

Swaraj said the group felt her concerns were valid and that necessary changes should be made in the bill.

The I and B minister had earlier suggested that content regulation be removed from the purview of CCI and brought under either the proposed Media Council, which would have under its ambit the electronic and print media, or a broadcasting council.

It is understood that at the last meeting, some senior members of the group felt that delinking content from the purview of CCI at the last minute would not be in the spirit of convergence, which seeks to bring information, communications and entertainment under the ambit of a single regulatory authority.

The government is likely to introduce the proposed Convergence Bill in the forthcoming Parliament session.

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