I&B Ministry
Time to have rules ensuring no one player dominates media: Smriti Irani
NEW DELHI: Minister for Information & Broadcasting Smriti Zubin Irani yesterday said that the time has come to put laws, ethics and rules into place that will help in balancing the media industry so that no one dominant player can rule the roost. She, however, did not elaborate what those parameters should or could be.
Speaking at the 15th Asia Media Summit (AMS) 2018 yesterday, she, however, hinted at her version of what good content could be, throwing oblique references to the growing digital-spurred edgy content in Indian media, including television.
Pointing out that India will have around 969 million internet users by 2021 and that the media industry looks upon the digital world “not only as a challenge but also as an opportunity”, Irani asked, “How do we attract, retain and develop talent, which frees good content from the trappings of revenue needs and brings about a balance in media institutions?”
She hoped that the media event would deliberate on ways to “delve and deliberate on Asia values”, and the need for good stories to be told.
Dwelling on the need for regulations to ensure level playing field for all, the minister referred to an address made by media baron Vineet Jain, group MD of Times Group, before her at the media conference to drive home a point that present laws may be inadequate to deal with the changing landscape of the Indian media.
Jain, during his address to the delegates at AMS 2018, had said, “But for Indian media to realise its full potential, regulatory reforms are needed across the board – to make it easier to do business, remove anomalies in the system, and above all, ensure a fair marketplace that benefits the consumer.”
Carrying forward, Irani said the India media is getting more consumer-centric because of the opportunities (and challenges) that the digital ecosystem is offering stakeholders, apart from the overall evolution of the industry.
Giving a perspective of the expanding Indian media industry, Irani said India was one of the fastest growing advertising market that is expected to touch $10.59 billion by the end of 2018, while the mobile spend was estimated to grow to $1.55 billion in the current year. “We have a vibrant media industry, which has a direct established impact of Rs 1.35 lakh crore and indirect and induced benefits of Rs 4.5 lakh crore, with close to 4 million people associated with it,” she added.
The three-day 15th Asia Media Summit is being hosted by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting jointly with the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), and Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL) in New Delhi. The theme of this year’s summit is ‘Telling Our Stories – Asia and More’, which would encourage regional and bilateral dialogue and cooperation to respond to challenges to the broadcasting sector in the region.
The minster expressed hope that the event will throw up new ideas so that pathways to strengthen media institutions for a better mankind could be explored.
Addressing the inaugural session, Minister of Information from Bangladesh Hasanul Haq Inu outlined six complex challenges the world faces today: poverty, gender disparity, terrorism, ICT revolution, climate change and uneven globalisation. Expressing concern at cybercrimes, he stressed upon the need to fight a war against cyber-criminals to keep the media safe and expanding.
This is the first time that the Asia Media Summit is being held in India. Over 220 foreign delegates representing 39 countries (SAARC, ASEAN, East Asia, Africa, Oceania, Europe, Syria, Uzbekistan, USA, China) and senior officials of the government and members of Indian media industry are participating in the event.
Also Read:
MIB moves to regulate online media: various organisations join issue
Online media professionals write to Smriti Irani expressing regulation concerns
I&B Ministry
India turns up the heat on piracy, orders Telegram to axe 3,142 channels and blocks 800 websites
New legal teeth, nodal officers and notices to intermediaries signal that the government is done playing nice with copyright thieves
NEW DELHI: India’s war on film piracy just got significantly more aggressive. The government has ordered Telegram to remove 3,142 channels distributing pirated content, blocked access to around 800 websites through internet service providers, and put the full weight of freshly sharpened legislation behind the crackdown. The message from New Delhi is unambiguous: the free ride for copyright thieves is over.
Minister of state for information and broadcasting L. Murugan spelled out the legal architecture to the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. The Cinematograph (Amendment) Act, 2023, he said, now contains specific provisions designed to make piracy a genuinely painful proposition. Sections 6AA and 6AB prohibit unauthorised recording and transmission of films, with violations attracting a minimum of three months’ imprisonment and a fine of Rs 3 lakh. At the upper end, offenders face three years behind bars and fines of up to 5 per cent of a film’s audited gross production cost — a figure that, for a big-budget production, could run into crores.
The legislation also gives the government powers to act against intermediaries hosting infringing content, by notifying them under Section 79(3) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and compelling takedowns and blocking actions. Under Section 79(3)(b), intermediaries are legally required to remove or disable access to unlawful content upon receiving government notice or court orders. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, add a further layer of obligation, requiring platforms to ensure their services are not used to host or distribute content that violates copyright or proprietary rights.
To put enforcement into practice, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has established a dedicated institutional mechanism, complete with nodal officers to receive complaints. Copyright holders, authorised representatives or individuals can report piracy through a prescribed format, after which the government issues notices to intermediaries to disable access to infringing links.
The most headline-grabbing action came on 11 March 2026, when Telegram was formally notified under Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act and directed to remove and disable 3,142 channels found to be distributing unauthorised content belonging to OTT platforms, content owners and producers. The complaints that triggered the action came from OTT platforms including JioCinema and Amazon Prime Video, which alleged that copyrighted films, web series and other material were being shared on the platform on a massive scale. Telegram’s architecture, with its large file-sharing limits and capacity for user anonymity, has made it a favoured vehicle for exactly this kind of large-scale piracy.
The Telegram action sits within a broader pattern of escalating enforcement. Just days before the Lok Sabha statement, the ministry banned five OTT platforms for streaming obscene content: MoodXVIP, Koyal Playpro, Digi Movieplex, Feel and Jugnu. In July 2025, the Centre ordered the blocking of 25 OTT platforms accused of streaming obscene, vulgar or pornographic material, a list that included ALTT, ULLU, Big Shots App, Desiflix, Boomex, Navarasa Lite, Gulab App, Kangan App, Bull App, Jalva App, ShowHit, Wow Entertainment, Look Entertainment, Hitprime, Feneo, ShowX, Sol Talkies, Adda TV, HotX VIP, Hulchul App, MoodX, NeonX VIP, Fugi, Mojflix and Triflicks.
Rule 3(1)(b) of the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, provides the regulatory hook for those actions, prohibiting platforms from hosting content that is obscene, pornographic, invasive of privacy, gender-harassing, racially or ethnically objectionable, or that promotes hatred and violence.
For an industry that loses billions of rupees annually to piracy, the direction of travel is welcome. The question, as always, is not whether the laws exist, but whether the enforcement machinery can keep pace with the ingenuity of those determined to circumvent it. Three thousand channels down, and the pirates are already busy opening three thousand more.
