India, Feb. 26 -- Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Ministry, Prakash Javadekar announced Government's guidelines on social media regulation. According to the new guidelines, publishers of news on digital media will be required to observe the Press Council of India's norms of journalistic conduct, as well as the programme code under the Cable Television Networks Regulation Act. He further stated that the digital media portals don't have the right to spread "falsehoods and rumors". "Press freedom is the spirit of democracy, but let me tell you that all freedom has to be responsible freedom."

Javadekar said that regulatory mechanisms and codes are present for print and TV news platforms, but not for digital news portals. He said...