The Digital Media Content Regulatory Council (DMCRC) held its first meeting recently. The meeting was attended by chairman Justice (retd.) Vikramajit Sen (third top from left in above picture) and members Tigmanshu Dhulia (second from left), Nikhil Advani (third bottom from left) and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari (first from left). The newly-formed body is a broadcaster-led self-regulatory body which also has, as its members, content producer-distributor Deepak Dhar and representatives from broadcast networks, Ashok Nambissan and Mihir Rale.
The DMCRC has been formed under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, notified by the central government recently. If any viewer has any concern or complaint regarding content on any OTT platform, he can directly contact the platform, which would then look into the complaint. However, if the complainant is not satisfied with the action taken, he can contact the DMCRC. It is a second-tier mechanism at the appellate level, similar to the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) for non-news general entertainment channels.
At the meeting, Justice Sen said, “We are about to embark upon a unique journey in content self-regulation. A fine balance needs to be maintained between creativity, freedom of expression and law.” The Council then took up the first appeal received by it. It was against the trailer of the 8-episode web series Grahan, which was released last month. The complainants had filed a grievance with the digital platform on 18th June, to which they received a reply within three days. Not satisfied, they approached the DMCRC. Their complaint said, it appeared from the trailer that the series showed a false narrative of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The Council did not find the trailer objectionable. It did not show a Sikh involved in looting and arson, it felt. Besides, according to the Council, the trailer categorically stated that the upcoming series was a work of fiction and it had been inspired by the Hindi novel Chaurasi, written by Satya Vyas. The Council also noted that there had been no evident critique of the book. The Council unanimously felt that it would be unfair to judge the entire series of eight episodes, running into a few hours, on the basis of a trailer of 2 minutes and 24 seconds. The appeal of the complainants was, therefore, found to be not maintainable.
