• The Parliament passed a Bill to replace a British-era law governing the publishing industry on December 21.

• Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said the Press and Registration of Periodicals Bill, 2023, which was passed by voice vote in the Lok Sabha, will make the registration of periodicals a one-step process as against the eight-step process in the archaic law.

• The Bill replaces the Press and Registration of Books (PRB) Act, 1867. The Rajya Sabha had passed the Bill on August 3.

• The minister said in cases of publishing a newspaper without registration the provision of jail term comes into force if the publisher fails to comply with the direction of the Press Registrar to stop publication within six months.

• The Bill empowers the Press Registrar General to impose penalties of up to Rs 5 lakh for publishing periodicals without registration and up to Rs 20,000 for first penalty for failing to furnish annual statement within the specified time. 

What is the purpose of the new Bill?

• The Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867 (the Act) was enacted for the regulation of printing presses and newspapers, for preservation of copies of books and newspapers printed in India, and for the registration of such books and newspapers. 

• The Act was a legacy of the British Raj and was enacted with the intent to exercise complete control over the press, printers and publishers of books and newspapers by imposing heavy fines and penalties, including imprisonment for various violations.

• Though the Act was amended many times between 1870 and 1983, it remained procedurally cumbersome and complex making it extremely burdensome and time consuming, especially for small and medium publishers, in matters of verification of title and obtaining of certificate of registration for publishing a periodical. 

• The process of furnishing a declaration before the local authority, its authentication by that authority and subsequent furnishing of application to the Press Registrar General, first for title verification and thereafter for obtaining certificate of registration, which was in vogue under the Act of 1867, is both time consuming and onerous. 

• Further, the punitive fines and penalties which included imprisonment, even for small contraventions, were anachronistic to the constitutional values. 

• In the present age of free press and the commitment of the government to uphold media freedom, this pre-Independence archaic law is not in sync with the current media landscape. Hence, it was considered necessary to repeal and re-enact the Act to be more contemporaneous.

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