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Ministry considering FDI in news agencies

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JAN. 8. Now that the contentious issue of foreign investment/participation in the print media has been settled, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry is considering a review of the existing policy for operation of foreign news agencies in the country.

At present governed by a Cabinet decision of 1956, foreign news agencies are only allowed to distribute news within the country through an Indian news agency owned and managed by Indians. The Ministry has now decided to take a fresh look at the existing policy in the light of the new regime that is being put in place vis-a-vis news, be it print or electronic.

Based on the recommendations of the First Commission, the Cabinet in 1956 decided that "communication facilities should be granted to foreign news agencies only where the distribution of news within the country is to be effected through an Indian news agency owned and managed by Indians, which would have full and final authority in the selection of foreign news for distribution, and which would also be in a position to supply Indian news in a reasonable volume to the foreign news agency with whom they have a working arrangement''. Further, the Cabinet stipulated that technical facilities would be granted only on the application of the Indian news agency "to ensure that the facilities so granted are used to the advantage and benefit of the country". Also, as per the decision, it was the responsibility of the Indian news agency to ensure that the facilities so granted are used to the advantage and benefit of the country.

The only exception to this rule has been made in the case of financial news offered by foreign news agencies. Allowed on a case-to-case basis, direct distribution of financial news by foreign news agencies is permissible to selected clients for their own use and not for further reproduction and publication. Though the issue of granting foreign news agencies permission to operate directly from India had come up when the Ministry was preparing the ground for opening the print media to foreign investment/participation, it was deferred to ease the industry into the new regime of greater foreign involvement in the Indian media.

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