Vaishnaw Advocates Fair Compensation in Digital Media Transition

On Thursday, IT and Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw addressed the issue of unequal revenue sharing between news publishers and tech giants like Google and Meta. He urged the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) to provide “clear policy recommendations” to support the shift from traditional to digital media.

“This conclave should discuss the role of the traditional media and prepare clear policy recommendations on how the media industry adapts to the changes and moves forward while protecting employment, copyright issues, how traditional media can get a fair compensation, and how to give adequate importance to content that is produced after editorial checks,” Vaishnaw said. “The government is ready to offer help to the media during this transition. The whole country views the media with great responsibility,” he added.

Vaishnaw's remarks are particularly important as they come at a time when news publishers in various countries, including the United States and India, are increasingly concerned about the use of copyrighted content, such as news reports, by companies like OpenAI for training their foundational models without consent or compensation.

This has resulted in legal disputes, including in India, where publishers – members of the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA), such as The Indian Express – have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing it of the  “unlawful utilisation of copyrighted material”.

The debate over compensating news publishers dates back to tensions between publishers and social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube. Publishers have pushed for payment for their content, while platforms like Meta have threatened to remove news altogether, a conflict that continues in many regions.

I&B Secretary Sanjay Jaju emphasized the importance of ensuring that publishers receive fair compensation from tech companies, warning that the lack of such compensation could threaten the quality of journalism in the country. He highlighted  “unchecked spread of misinformation and click bait journalism, which is undermining our democratic values”.

“While digital platforms have been profiting significantly from the journalism of India as well, there is also a stark imbalance in revenue sharing. Indian media houses produce content that drives engagement, yet there is a feeling that they receive very little in return. I think without a fair compensation model, quality journalism definitely faces a huge risk and also has chances of getting compromised,” Jaju said.

He stated that the safe harbour provisions of the Information Technology Act, which were intended to protect digital intermediaries like social media companies, have at times been used as an “excuse to evade responsibility.”

“The global discourse around safe harbor protections also signals the need for platforms to proactively curb misinformation rather than reacting after harm is done,” Jaju said.