Media Laws and Ethics III: The Right to Information Act, Copyright and IPR, the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, the IT Act and Cyber Laws, the Cinematograph Act and Film Certification, the Press Council Act, ASCI and the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act; Regulatory Bodies; Guidelines and Codes; the Adversarial Role of the Media; and Human Rights

Intellectual property rights protect creations of the mind: copyright for works of authorship, trade marks for brand identifiers (Trade Marks Act 1999), patents for inventions (Patents Act 1970), designs (Designs Act 2000) and geographical indications (1999). Internationally they rest on the Berne Convention (1886) for copyright, WIPO (1967), and the TRIPS Agreement (1995) of the World Trade Organization. The Copyright Act 1957 protects original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, cinematograph films and sound recordings. Copyright protects expression, not ideas or facts, so news as such is not owned by anyone, but a reporter's article, a photograph and a broadcast are. For literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works the term is the author's life plus 60 years; broadcasting organisations have a broadcast reproduction right for 25 years and performers a performer's right for 50 years.

Section 52 lists acts that do not infringe copyright, and fair dealing is the one journalists rely on: fair dealing with a work for private or personal use including research, for criticism or review, and for reporting current events and current affairs, including the reporting of a lecture delivered in public. The 2012 amendment strengthened the rights of lyricists and composers in film music to royalties and introduced statutory licensing for broadcasting literary and musical works and sound recordings. Disputes that went to the Copyright Board and then to the Intellectual Property Appellate Board now go to the High Courts, after the IPAB was abolished by the tribunal reforms of 2021.

The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995 requires cable operators to register and to transmit only programmes and advertisements that conform to the Programme Code and the Advertising Code prescribed under the Cable Television Networks Rules 1994. The Programme Code bars content that offends good taste or decency, attacks religions or communities, is obscene or defamatory, encourages violence, or denigrates women or children, among other things; the Advertising Code bars, for example, direct advertising of liquor and tobacco, and the Rules limit advertising to 12 minutes in a clock hour. Authorised officers can seize equipment, and the central government can prohibit transmission in the public interest. A 2011 amendment mandated the digitisation of cable through a digital addressable system, and the Cable Television Networks (Amendment) Rules 2021 gave broadcasters' grievance redressal a statutory three-tier structure: self-regulation by broadcasters, self-regulating bodies of broadcasters, and oversight by the central government. Satellite channels are licensed under the Uplinking and Downlinking Guidelines 2022, which also ask channels to carry content in the national and public interest for 30 minutes a day. A draft Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, released for consultation in 2023, would replace the 1995 Act; it remains a draft, not law.

The Cinematograph Act 1952 requires every film to be certified before public exhibition by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), which consists of a Chairperson and not fewer than twelve and not more than twenty-five members appointed by the central government, and was called the Central Board of Film Censors until 1983. The Board may certify a film, require cuts or modifications, or refuse certification, applying principles under section 5B that follow the grounds of Article 19(2). "Film censorship", in the syllabus's phrase, is thus prior certification, which the Supreme Court upheld in K. A. Abbas v Union of India (1970) because film's impact justifies different treatment from print; in Union of India v K. M. Shankarappa (2000) it held that the central government cannot override the certification decisions of the Board and the appellate body.

The Information Technology Act 2000, substantially amended in 2008, is India's main cyber law. Among its provisions relevant to the media are section 66E (violating privacy by capturing or publishing private images), sections 67, 67A and 67B (obscene, sexually explicit, and child sexual abuse material in electronic form), section 69A (the power to block public access to online content, exercised under the Blocking Rules of 2009), and section 79, which gives intermediaries such as platforms a "safe harbour" from liability for users' content if they observe due diligence and act on lawful orders. Section 66A, which punished "grossly offensive" or "menacing" online messages, was struck down in Shreya Singhal (2015), which also read section 79 to require removal only on a court order or government notification.

The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 have two parts. Part II, administered by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, sets due-diligence duties for intermediaries and extra duties for significant social media intermediaries (those with at least 50 lakh registered users in India), including resident compliance and grievance officers and, for messaging services, enabling identification of the first originator of information on a court or government order, a requirement challenged in court. Part III, administered by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, applies a Code of Ethics to publishers of news and current affairs content and to publishers of online curated content (streaming platforms), requires streaming content to be self-classified as U, U/A 7+, U/A 13+, U/A 16+ or A, and sets up a three-tier grievance mechanism: the publisher, a self-regulating body of publishers, and an oversight mechanism of the central government. In 2021 the Bombay High Court stayed the rule requiring digital news publishers to adhere to the Code of Ethics, and in 2024 it struck down a 2023 amendment that provided for a government fact-check unit (Kunal Kamra v Union of India). A 2022 amendment added Grievance Appellate Committees for users' complaints against platforms.

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 regulates the processing of digital personal data. It gives data principals (individuals) rights to information, correction and erasure and grievance redress, places duties on data fiduciaries (those who decide the purpose and means of processing), makes consent the main basis for processing with some legitimate uses allowed without it, and creates the Data Protection Board of India, which can impose penalties of up to 250 crore rupees for certain breaches. The Act does not contain an express exemption for journalism, which press organisations have criticised, and its rules and staged commencement should be checked for the current position.

The Press Council Act 1978, amended from time to time, sets up the Press Council of India (its composition is set out in Chapter 1) with the objects of preserving the freedom of the press and maintaining and improving the standards of newspapers and news agencies. Under section 14 the Council may, after inquiry, warn, admonish or censure a newspaper, news agency, editor or journalist, or disapprove the conduct of an editor or journalist; section 15(2) provides that nothing in its powers compels a newspaper, news agency, editor or journalist to disclose the source of any news or information. The Council also takes up complaints by the press against authorities that threaten its freedom. The Council began functioning on 16 November 1966, which is observed as National Press Day.

The Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act 1954 prohibits advertisements of drugs for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of the diseases and conditions listed in its schedule, and of "magic remedies", such as talismans, mantras and charms, claimed to cure or affect bodily functions; it also bars advertisements that make false claims or give a misleading impression about a drug. Its enforcement was at the centre of the Supreme Court's proceedings in Indian Medical Association v Union of India from 2022, concerning misleading advertisements of traditional remedies. Together with ASCI's self-regulation and the Consumer Protection Act 2019, described in Chapter 8, it forms the core of advertising law.

The Press Council's Norms of Journalistic Conduct, revised from time to time, are the fullest Indian code for the press. They cover accuracy and fairness, pre-publication verification, caution against defamatory writing, the right of reply, privacy, the reporting of communal disputes and of crime, the identification of victims and children, conflicts of interest, plagiarism, paid news, and guidelines on subjects such as suicide and elections. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issues advisories to channels, for example on coverage of security operations and of violence, backed by its powers under the Cable Act. Broadcasters' self-regulatory bodies, such as the News Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority, apply codes of ethics and broadcasting standards covering impartiality, privacy, sting operations and the reporting of crime and violence, and the Editors Guild of India (1978) speaks for editorial freedom and standards.

The adversarial role of the media is its role as a watchdog on power, the "fourth estate" beside the legislature, executive and judiciary, a phrase Thomas Carlyle attributed to Edmund Burke. It requires independence from those in power, a willingness to investigate and publish what officials want hidden, and a legal framework that protects such reporting, from Article 19(1)(a) to the defences in defamation and contempt law. Watergate (1972–74), exposed by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post, is the classic international example. The adversarial role is not hostility for its own sake: it is justified only by accuracy and the public interest, and the same codes that protect it demand fairness to those it scrutinises.

Human rights and the media meet in two ways. The media report human-rights violations, and in India the Protection of Human Rights Act 1993 set up the National Human Rights Commission and state commissions, whose findings are often reported. The media also hold rights themselves: freedom of expression is a human right under Article 19 of the UDHR and the ICCPR, and the safety of journalists is part of it. The United Nations marks 3 May as World Press Freedom Day (proclaimed in 1993) and 2 November as the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists (adopted in 2013). Reporting on rights also carries duties: to protect the dignity and identity of victims, avoid stereotypes of caste, gender, religion and disability, and give voice to those whose rights are at stake.