The government on Tuesday told Parliament that it was aware of the circulation of fake news on various media platforms and that its fact check unit was responsible for monitoring the same by way of queries sent by citizens on its portal or through e-mail and social media.
Union information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur was responding to a query raised in Lok Sabha by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker BP Saroj who had sought the government’s action plan on how to control fake news.
Thakur mentioned that the Press Council of India (PCI) a statutory autonomous body set up under the Press Council Act, 1978, had framed “Norms of Journalistic Conduct” which cross-checked various parameters to verify if a print article violated any ethical norms.
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“In case of violation of norms, as per section 14 of the Act, after holding an inquiry, PCI may warn, admonish or censure the newspaper, the news agency, the editor or the journalist or disapprove the conduct of the editor or the journalists as the case may be,” Thakur said in his written reply.
The minister added, “For Television, all TV channels are required to adhere to the Programme Code under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, including that programmes should not contain anything obscene, defamatory, deliberate, false and suggestive innuendos and half-truth. For digital news publishers, the government has notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 under the IT Act, 2000.”
While responding to another query by Trinamool Congress (TMC) senior leader Saugata Roy who had asked the ministry to clarify if the Editors Guild or any other media organisations have objected on government’s existing fact-finding checks on fake reports on visual and print media, Thakur stated that the ministry had not received any such representation.
The Press Information Bureau’s (PIB) fact-check unit examines the veracity of contents only related to the central government ministries and organisations and it was established back in 2019.
