We missed this earlier: A new Self-Regulatory Body (SRB), Media9 Digital Media Foundation (MDMF), was approved by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) in January 2022, according to a notification uploaded on the ministry’s website. The body had applied for registration in October 2021, and it will now operate as a Level II SRB for publishers of news and current affairs content. It is only the fifth body to have received approval from the ministry since May last year when the IT Rules 2021 came into effect. The Union government has not revealed the criteria based on which approval is granted to applications. This also shows that the government has continued to grant approval to organisations regardless of a stay imposed by the Bombay High Court on certain parts of the rules. Who are the members of Media9 Digital Media Foundation? The body will be led by Ashok J. Jha, Media Expert and Editor-In-Chief, Lok News, according to the ministry. Here are the members listed in the notification: Kamdeo T. Khandekar, Former Chief Law Officer, Mumbai Port Trust (Legal Adviser) Irshad R. Shaikh, Advocate High Court and S.E.O, Government of Maharashtra Chetan R. Satta, National President, Media9 Digital Media Federation Harshal K. Bhadane, Media Expert and Senior Correspondent, TV9 Marathi Govind L. Pal, Media Expert and Senior Correspondent, News Nation MediaNama reached out to Chetan Satta from Media9 Digital Media Federation (MDMF) in order to understand the nature of the organisation and its function but he refused to speak on…
