One Day National Conference on “Changing Dimensions In Media Laws”
10 February 2018
Faculty Coordinator:- Dr. Suvarna S. Nilakh
ILS Law College, Pune organized a One-Day National Conference on the theme of “Changing Dimensions In Media Laws” on the 10th February, 2018. The conference experienced a participation of about 270 attendees from within and outside Pune inclusive of students and professionals.
The theme was divided into 3 sessions, each dealing with the interface of Media Laws with other Laws. The first session was on “Censorship and Public Policy” which was chaired by Principal Vaijayanti Joshi and was paneled by 3 esteemed speakers.
First speaker Mr. Sudhir Makkar, Sr. Advocate, Delhi High Court, spoke about how media aids in mobilizing public’s opinion through Media Trials, Yellow Journalism and also explained the scope of “expression” under Article 19 of the Indian Constitution. Mr. Ravi Suryavanshi, Partner at Naik and Naik Co., Bombay enlightened the audience about how censorship works in the film industry and also covered censorship related issues with other forms of media like books, advertisements, etc.
The last speaker of the session was Dr. Nitish Nawsagaray, Faculty, ILS Law College. He opined on how the censor board is not a mere body to grant certificates for movies but acts as a moral police and strongly advocated the removal of it as a censoring body. He strongly condemned an independent body to control what people can watch or not.
The Second session was on “Unique IPR in Media” chaired by Dr. Sita Bhatia, Faculty,ILS Law College. On the panel, was Mr. Ravi Suryavanshi again who gave his insight into “Movie Title Infringements and Bollywood Contracts” and shared his experiences having represented a lot of Bollywood Production houses for various Bollywood movies. He enlightened the participants by giving examples like Nishabd and Nishabbd, Veeray ki Wedding and Veeray Di Wedding, etc. The second speaker was Dr. Sanjeeth Hegde, Senior Partner, Banana IP Counsels, Bangalore. He spoke on “Digital Content Control” and covered all the aspects related to the topics while focusing on famous apps and websites like Netflix, Shazam, Saavn, etc.
The last session was on “Media and Sports”, chaired by Dr. Tejasvini Malegaonkar, Faculty,ILS Law College. The session had two speakers; Mr. Rohan Bhammar, Legal Manager, IMG Reliance who talked about the “Privacy Rights of Sportspersons” citing examples of Cricket, Football,etc. He explained the concept and difference between Privacy Rights of Sportsperson and their publicity rights. The methods of brand endoresement and conflicts therein were also discussed. The last speaker of the conference was Ms. Divvya Verma, Consultant, Bharucha and Partners, Mumbai. She spoke on the topic of “Broadcating Rights of Sports Channels”. She discussed the various aspects of owning broadcasting rights, their sale and liabilities arising therein. Monitoring of broadcasting channels in a country as well as cross-country also were the topics of discussion.
Student Coordinators:- Oorjaswi Goswami, Kritika Shekhawat, Lavanya Chopra, Aishwarya Ambardekar and Sakshi Shivhare (all V BSL.LL.B.)