On Thursday, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting advised media entities, media platforms, and online advertisement intermediaries to refrain from carrying betting platform advertisements/promotional content.
The Ministry took strong exception in an advisory issued on Thursday to recent instances of mainstream English and Hindi newspapers carrying advertisements and promotional content of betting websites. The advisory was sent to all media formats, including newspapers, television channels, and online news publishers, and included specific examples of such advertisements that had recently appeared in the media.
The Ministry has also objected to a specific betting platform’s promotion encouraging viewers to watch a sports league on its website, which appears to be in violation of the Copyright Act of 1957.
While emphasising the media’s legal and moral obligations, the Advisory refers to provisions of the Press Council’s Norms of Journalistic Conduct, which state, among other things, that “newspapers should not publish an advertisement containing anything which is unlawful or illegal,” and that “newspapers and periodicals should scrutinise the advertisement inputs from ethical as well as legal angles in light of the editor’s responsibility for the content.” Revenue generation cannot and should not be the sole goal of the press, in contrast to a much larger public responsibility.”
The Ministry previously issued Advisories in June and October 2022 stating that betting and gambling are illegal, and thus direct or surrogate advertisements of such activities all violate the Consumer Protection Act. 2019, the Press Council Act 1978, the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, and other relevant statutes.