Membership of NADCOM is open to digital-first media organizations working in Northeast India. Here are the governance rules of NADCOM:
- Only founding members can become office holders for the first 5 years i.e till 2025-26.
- Any digital-first media organization working in Northeast India, can apply for membership as a General Member of NADCOM. The membership eligibility criteria are mention below.
- A General Member will get voting rights after completion of 2 years as a General Member of the association.
- A General Member can become an office bearer of NADCOM after competing 5 years as member of the association.
- Membership fee for general members = Rs 20,000 per year.
- Membership fee for founding members = Rs 50,000 for first year and Rs 20,000 per year afterwards.
Eligibility criteria for Membership:
- The digital news media organization must be registered – as a company, LLP, proprietorship etc. in any of the eight Northeast India states. Only the websites which are owned and operated by companies that are incorporated in Northeastern states (Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura) will be considered for empanelment. However, websites owned by foreign companies / origin may be eligible if such websites have a wholly owned company registered and operating in Northeast India.
- The digital news media must have a website.
- The website must be at least TWO years old and must be continuously in operation under the same name (website address) for minimum of two years. The period shall be calculated backwards from the date on which the website applies for empanelment.
- The website must have a minimum average Unique Users (from within India) per month based on the data of last six months. It must report their duly certified average monthly Unique User (UU) count of last six months.
- Different websites belonging to one company / group can be empanelled, provided they separately / individually fulfil the UU count criteria. In other words, bunching / adding of UU count of the different websites of one group / company shall NOT be permitted. Also, in such cases, separate applications for each website shall have to be submitted along with applicable fee.
- NADCOM reserves the right to decline empanelment or suspend empanelment of any website if its content is found to be anti-national / obscene / indecent / anti-social / violative of communal harmony and national integrity etc., or deemed objectionable in any form as determined by the competent Committee, or if the website acts in violation of the extant Cyber Laws of India.
- Only the applications submitted directly by companies owning and operating the website shall be entertained. In other words, no intermediary agency is eligible to apply on behalf of a website or group of websites.
Membership form can be obtained here.