News Broadcasters' Group Challenge Digital Media Rules In Kerala High Court

The specific challenge is to the creation of an oversight mechanism giving the government "unfettered, unbridled and excessive powers to regulate content of digital news media"

The News Broadcasters Association - a group of 25 leading news and current affairs broadcasters - has challenged the government's new digital media rules in the Kerala High Court, on grounds that it gives authorities "excessive powers to unreasonably and impermissibly restrict (media's) freedom of speech and expression". The NBA's petition also states that the rules - the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines & Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 - are ultra vires, or in violation of, the existing Information Technology Act of 2000, as well as Articles 14 and 19 of the Indian Constitution. The specific challenge is to the creation of an oversight mechanism that provides the government with "unfettered, unbridled and excessive powers to regulate content of digital news media". The NBA petition said that by creating such a structure the government had "... vested itself with powers reserved exclusively for the judiciary..."