The information and broadcasting ministry has drafted a guideline, making registration mandatory for national and foreign online streaming platforms to continue their operation in Bangladesh.
The ministry drafted the guideline and submitted it to the High Court on Monday to comply with its directive issued in January 2020 after hearing a public interest litigation writ petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer Md Tanvir Ahmed.
A bench of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil asked the government to update the court on October 19 about the next development on the draft guideline.
The court, on scrutiny of the draft guideline, observed that if any citizen felt aggrieved at any rule of the guideline, she or he could come before the court challenging the legality of the rule.
The guideline prohibits streaming talk-shows or news except live or recorded programmes of authorised television channels.
The ministry has defined the contents for streaming outlets, popularly known as OTT — over-the-top — platforms in the guideline.
Various entertainment programmes, dramas, cinemas, documentaries, fictions, nonfictions, sport events, docufictions, infotainment — also called soft news — advertisements, videos on demand, live or recorded contents of authorised television channels except news or talk-shows have been defined as OTT contents, according to the guideline.
It prohibits streaming such contents that oppose the liberation ideology, disrupt communal harmony, threaten the order and integrity of the state, oppose existing laws of the land, negate national culture and damage social value.
It also prohibits streaming contents which disrespect the national anthem, the national flag, the fundamental principles of the state policy and the spirit of the War of Liberation.
The guideline bans OTT platforms from streaming contents which stimulate sexual urge among children, harm religious sentiment, encourage extremism, communalism, disrupt stability in society and state and the contents which have been banned by courts in judgements or by the state with laws.
As mandated in the guideline, national and foreign steaming platforms will have to apply to the secretary of the information and broadcasting ministry for registration in the prescribed form of the ministry under the Broadcasting Policy 2014 until the draft Content-based Over-The-Top (OTT) Service Providing and Operation and Display of Advertisements Guidelines 2021 becomes effective.
The guideline bans video streaming of any programme or advertisements using internet or other technology in the country without having any registration.
An OTT registration seeker will have to deposit a bank draft or pay order of Tk 5 lakh to the ministry along with the application while the requirement for a foreign applicant is a bank draft or pay order of Tk 25 lakh along with the application.
The applicants are required to mention, especially in their applications, the purpose of operating an OTT and what types of content they intend to stream.
The information ministry, on scrutiny of the applications, would send them to the home ministry to get security clearance certificates while the applications filed by foreign nationals would be sent to the foreign ministry for getting security clearance certificates.
Once the registration with the information and broadcasting ministry is done, the applicants would have to update their registrations every three years with the payment of Tk 3 lakh for a national applicant and Tk 10 lakh for a foreign applicant.
The draft guideline is needed to prevent the posting of immoral video contents to streaming platforms and to impose value added tax on all streaming platforms for running their business, said Tanvir Ahmed, who filed the writ petition to regulate the OTT contents.
Reza-E-Raquib Khandaker, appearing for the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, told New Age that the BTRC had earlier submitted a draft guideline titled ‘Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission Regulation for Digital and Social Media Platforms 2021’.
The BTRC draft guideline, which had mandated registration for social media platforms, including Facebook and YouTube, to operate within the country, drew flaks from right defenders.
Under the regulations, the commission had prepared a stringent code of conduct that would be mandatory for the users of these platforms.
Besides, the commission had also made it a must for the social media platforms as well as other online public platforms to take measures against the users in case of violation of the code of conduct.
The measures of that draft guideline had included blocking contents as well as users for the violation of the code of conduct.
Source: https://www.newagebd.net/article/173218/registration-mandatory-for-ott-platforms