MIB plans to draft guidelines on govt ads

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is planning to formulate guidelines for the government advertisements. The purpose of draft is to differentiate between advertisements that are part of government messaging and those that are politically motivated.

 The MIB on5th May convened a meeting of its committee to prepare the guidelines on the basis of a Supreme Court order dated 23 April. The apex court order had directed the ministry to convene a committee for the same. 

Hon’ble Supreme Court of India while pronouncing its judgement on 23.4.2014 after review Writ Petition (Civil) No 13 of 2003 with Writ Petition undertake the task of suggesting guidelines on the publicity funded Government  advertising campaigns, after an intricate study of all the best practices in different jurisdictions.

The court had found that the existing policy/guidelines do not govern the issues raised and do not lay down criteria for the advertisements to qualify as public service messaging as opposed to attaining partisan ends and political mileage. 

Based on the apex court’s directive, the constitution of the Committee will be as follows:

Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon (Former Director, National Judicial Academy), senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, former secretary T.K. Vishwanahtan and MIB secretary as member secretary.  

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/4781-mib-plans-to-draft-guidelines-on-govt-ads.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/4781-mib-plans-to-draft-guidelines-on-govt-ads.html