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office of Registrar of Newspapers for India

Government of India
Information for Publishers
  • Publishers from DELHI NCR Region should submit the issue of Newspapers/Periodicals at RNI HQ, DELHI.
DUTIES OF A PUBLISHER

Newspaper publisher and printers can help the Office of RNI in discharging its functions in a better manner by ensuring timely compliance of the duties enjoined upon them by the PRB Act and related Rules. They should also ensure that whenever they seek a service from this Office, all the requirements for providing it are satisfied at the application stage itself.

  1. DELIVERY OF COPIES OF NEWSPAPER TO PRESS REGISTRAR
    • According to the Registration of Newspaper (central) Rules, 1956, within 48 hours of the publication of a newspaper, one copy of the issue is to be sent to the Press Registrar, either by post or by a messenger. In the case of multi-edition newspapers published under the same declaration, one copy of each edition is required to be sent if the retail selling price or the number of pages in an edition is different from another edition.
    • Copies of newspapers published in English, Hindi or Urdu or in languages other than those mentioned below are to sent to the Press Registrar, Office of RNI, West Block 8, R.K.Puram, New Delhi 110 066.
    • Copies of newspapers published in the following languages are to be sent to the Office of the Press Information Bureau at the places mentioned against each:
    Punjabi Jalandhar
    Bengali Kolkatta
    Oriya Kolkatta
    Assamese Kolkatta
    Tamil Chennai
    Telugu Hyderabad
    Malayalam Cochin
    Marathi Mumbai
    Konkani Mumbai
    Portugese Mumbai
    Gujarati Ahmedabad
    Kannada Bangalore
    Kashmiri Srinagar
  2. Submit your annual statement in time
    • Every publisher should furnish to the Press Registrar an annual statement regarding the newspaper. The statement is to be in the format given as in Form II in the Schedule to the Registration of Newspapers (Central) Rules, 1956.
    • The statement will be on financial year basis, and it should reach the Press Registrar on or before the last day of May of the following year.
    • Where the circulation of newspaper exceeds 2000 copies per publishing day, a certificate from a chartered accountant or a qualified auditor as given below Part B of the prescribed format is to be furnished along with the annual statement.
    • Failure in timely submission of the annual statement is liable for penal action under the PRB Act.
    • Note: Every year the Press Registrar is required to submit to the government a report on the status of the Press in the country, which is largely based on the annual statements. Therefore, newspapers must kindly provide complete and accurate information in the annual statements, in Form II. A separate statement giving complete and accurate details is also required to be submitted by daily newspapers.
  3. OWNERSHIP STATEMENT

    Every year, in the first issue after the last day of February, a statement regarding the ownership and other details of the newspaper should be published, in the format given as Form IV in the Schedule to the Registration of Newspapers (Central) Rules, 1956.

  4. MAKE A CEASING DECLARATION

    In the event a person ceases to be the printer or a publisher of the newspaper, he/she should appear before any Magistrate (District, Presidency, or Sub-Divisional) and make the following declaration, in duplicate:

    I __________, declare that I have ceased to be the printer or publisher (or the printer and publisher) of the newspaper entitled _______. In case of ceasing publication of a newspaper, the declaration should be made by its owner of the title or a person authorized by him.

    Failure to do so will attract penal action under the PRB Act.

    The Magistrate will authenticate the declaration and an attested copy of the same is to be forwarded to Press Registrar by the printer/publisher.

  5. Submit Returns for import of newsprint

    The publisher/owner of a newspaper should submit half-yearly returns for the period ending 30th September by 31st October of the same year and annual returns for the period ending 31st March by 30th April, indicating the quantity of imported newsprint purchased and consumed during the relevant periods. The half-yearly return is to be certified by the publish/owner and the annual is to be certified by a Chartered Accountant.

    Failure to submit the returns in time or submission of false information will disqualify the newspaper for authentication of Certificate of Registration for import of newsprint.

PERIODIC INFORMATION/RETURN REQUIRED FROM THE PUBLISHER
  1. Deliver copies of newspapers to the press registrar within 48 hrs of its publication.
  2. Annual Statement required in Form II.
  3. Statement of ownership and other particulars about newspaper in Form IV.
  4. Statement of daily Press as prescribed in Annexure X.
  5. The publisher using imported newsprint would also have to submit the return regarding purchase and consumption of imported newsprint as prescribed in Annexure-VIII.