NEW DELHI: Amidst the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) matches, the Ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B) on Thursday advised media entities, media platforms and online advertisement intermediaries to refrain from carrying advertisements or promotional content of betting platforms.
The advisory has been issued after the ministry observed advertisements and promotional content published in the newspapers.
"The ministry has taken strong exception to the recent instances of mainstream English and Hindi newspapers carrying advertisements and promotional content of betting websites. The Advisory has been issued to all media formats, including newspapers, television channels, and online news publishers, and showed specific examples where such advertisements have appeared in the media in recent times," read a press statement issued by the ministry.
The ministry has also objected to the promotion by a specific betting platform encouraging the audience to watch a sports league on its website, which prima facie appears to be in violation of the Copyright Act, 1957.
While emphasizing on the legal obligation as well as the moral duty of the media, the advisory refers to provisions of the Norms of Journalistic Conduct of the Press Council which mentions that "newspapers should not publish an advertisement containing anything which is unlawful or illegal...", and further that "the newspapers and periodicals should scrutinize the advertisement inputs from ethical as well as legal angles in view of the editor's responsibility for all contents including advertisement, under Section 7 of PRB Act, 1867. Revenue generation alone cannot and should not be the sole aim of the Press, juxtaposed with much larger public responsibility".
The ministry earlier issued similar advisories in the months of June and October last year stating that betting and gambling is illegal, and hence direct or surrogate advertisements of such activities fall foul of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the Press Council Act 1978, Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, and other relevant statutes.