How legacy media lobbied against digital competition

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Editor's note: If you were under the impression that there was a running battle between the government and the media (read: all media), you’d be wrong. It is now clear that legacy media organizations like the influential Times Group, the Indian Newspaper Society (which represents print media houses) and the Digital News Publishers’ Association (a collective formed by 10 of India’s largest print media companies) lobbied the government to impose curbs on digital media companies, whose rapid proliferation they perceived as competition and hence a threat. The Morning Context has accessed official documents under the Right to Information Act and a review confirmed that some of the government’s actions over the last 18 months, such as its decisions to restrict foreign direct investment in digital media companies to 26% and to bring all digital media entities under a new set of rules, were prompted as much by the lobbying efforts of prominent legacy media organizations as they were by the administration’s own eagerness to control digital news.  The lobbying efforts by legacy media firms picked up steam soon after 28 August 2019 …