Non-governmental organisations that receive foreign funds and are engaged in publication-related activities cannot publish any news content, according to directives by the Union Home Ministry on Monday.

The new directive is part of amendments to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Rules. Non-profit organisations that wish to receive funds from abroad need to register themselves under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.

According to the amended rules, if an organisation’s publications is registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India, it must obtain a certificate from this authority stating that it is not a newspaper.

Further, non-governmental organisations seeking permission to receive foreign funds need to furnish an undertaking that they will adhere to the Good Practices Guidelines of the Financial Action Task Force, the global watchdog on terror financing and money laundering.

Such organisations also need to enclose financial statements and audit reports of the last three financial years, as per the amended rules. These documents have to include a statement of assets and liabilities, receipts and payments account, and income and expenditure account.

Non-profit organisations that want to register themselves under the Act also need to submit year-wise activity reports for the last three years, according to the amended rules.

In 2020, the Centre amended the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act to extend tighter control over how non-profit organisations use foreign funds. Since then, several NGOs have alleged that the government has been using the law to target organisations they do not agree with.

Among organisations whose licences under the Act were cancelled or not renewed were non-profits working on human rights, such as Oxfam India and Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, and think tanks such as Centre for Policy Research.

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