“Our party is of the opinion that there should be no hasty step taken regarding media regulation. Apart from the self-regulatory mechanism put in place by the news channels, it is necessary to have co-regulation through an independent regulatory body... How this is to be done has to be discussed and a common approach arrived at. Till then, no steps should be taken to empower the Government and the administration to further regulate the news channels,” Karat has written to the PM.

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi is also said to have assured broadcasters that she would bring it to the Government's notice and added that the Congress believed that the freedom of the press should not be compromised.

“L K Advani said the proposed amendments were a throwback to the Emergency days as the opposition was not informed or consulted on this issue. Both Ram Vilas Paswan and Raghuvansh Prasad Singh were aghast at the proposed rules and said they would oppose any such move. We showed Sonia Gandhi a copy of the emergency protocol that we have come up with and she seemed quite positive about self-regulation,” said a news channel’s editor.