Digital Gets Ground Rules By Subimal Bhattacharjee In a joint press conference addressed on Thursday by Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar, GoI unveiled the much-awaited guidelines for over-the-top (OTT) and digital media platforms. The move comes in the wake of a growing chorus of complaints by members of civil society, activists, filmmakers, political leaders and impartial institutions regarding the lack of ethical conduct by OTT and digital news platforms. These complaints have been echoed in some of the judgements of the Supreme Court and a few high courts. GoI had initially been reluctant to impinge on the freedom of online platforms, and had encouraged them to come out with a self-regulatory code to be enforced by an independent body. Attempts at putting together the independent body to regulate digital platforms fell through, as the proposed body had only industry professionals on board, reducing the credibility of the body. This prompted the government to come out with the set of rules that would govern the OTT platforms and digital news channels.