The government is poised to come out with a comprehensive digital advertising policy soon that would help digital businesses financially, Minister for Information & Broadcasting Anurag Thakur yesterday said.

Speaking at Conclave, organised by Storyboard18 Digital News Publisher Association (DNPA) in New Delhi yesterday, Thakur said the government will soon come out with a digital marketing and advertising policy that would benefit the digital industry and help players cut their revenue losses.

The MIB has been working on a comprehensive advertising marketing policy that would enable the government and the agencies under it to give ads to digital platforms, which could also include the OTT platforms.

The Minister, however, didn’t elaborate whether the policy he dwelt on would be put in place before the general elections are announced or would be effective after a new government comes to power in the country, which would be some time late May or early June later this year.

The Minister also held forth on the media’s role in general in India, urging it to work towards a ‘developed (viksit) Bharat’ without forgetting that anti-India sentiments are at play globally and, to counter such moves, the Indian media fraternity should work towards propagating the correct picture.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done good work to promote India’s growth, and I request media people to promote good work done in India around the world,” he added

Self-Regulation Not License To Err Intentionally: The Minister, while maintaining that the government supports freedom of media and self-regulations (as prevalent in the OTT sector, for example), however, cautioned it not to go overboard.

“As with all things that expand with speed, the expansion of the media in India also merits a cautionary note. Much of the media governance structure is self-regulatory… but self-regulation does not mean the licence to err, and err intentionally. That would erode the credibility of the media,” the Minister stressed.

“We may have left the (Covid) pandemic behind us but the debilitating infodemic seems here to stay. It is for the media to reflect and introspect on how to immunise itself against the virus of infodemic, which continues to inflict disinformation on societies across geographies,” Thakur said.

Pointing out that “clickbait journalism contributes nothing to media credibility”, Thakur added, mentioning it contributes even less to nation-building.

Briefly, he dwelt on the various policy initiatives of the government aimed at ease of doing business in India.

In this regard, he gave the example of passing of the Press and Registration of Periodicals Bill, 2023 by the Parliament recently, which was helmed by MIB.

The government, Thakur said, has made the registration of periodicals, magazines and newspapers easier by reducing the registration time to just 60 days, which earlier used to take up to two years’ time.

“Difference in opinions is acceptable, but our commitment to Indianness should remain unwavering. I urge our friends in the media to be our partners in implementing the vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047,” he added.