NEW DELHI, Aug 19: The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) today criticised the manner in which the Press Council of India (PCI) was reconstituted recently and has called for the formation of an independent media council.

The IJU national executive committee’s two-day annual meeting in New Delhi concluded today amidst criticism of the PCI and calls for strengthening media freedom in the country.

Earlier this year, PCI chairman, former Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad, had rejected all six nominees made by the Editors Guild of India, Hindi Samacharpatra Sammelan and All India Newspapers Conference for the constitution of the 13th Press Council.

The Indian Newspaper Society (INS) had moved the Delhi High Court against the PCI’s decision to reject the nomination of Hormusji N. Cama, owner of Mumbai Samachar weekly and a member of the INS, in the category of medium newspapers. The court had stayed the council’s decision. The INS had accused the PCI chief of “biased” selection of new members. The claims were, however, rejected by the media watchdog, which said, laid down rules were followed in the process of induction of new members.

The IJU today passed a resolution criticizing the former judge’s action.

“Shockingly, the outgoing Chairman chose to brazenly do away with well-established procedure and interpreted the rules and guidelines perversely with the intent to keep out some organisations and its choice of members. Worse, he held a series of meetings of a truncated Council (with 20 of the 28 members yet to be officially notified) to get himself entrenched for another term as well as make/change rules and guidelines to give the government a handle to choose its own members by keeping out legitimate unions and organisations in the future,” the IJU said.

The IJU added that the Central Press Accreditation Committee (CPAC) has been reconstituted without the representatives of organisations of working journalists, editors of the news media, “in clear violation of stipulated guidelines and amounts to veiled censorship”.

It said that I&B Ministry in March appointed a committee consisting of “a few hand-picked journalists”.

The largest body of Indian journalists said that the I&B Ministry’s decision "to appoint a committee consisting largely of government officials and a few organisations to recommend regulatory framework for online media, without prior and meaningful consultation with all the stake holders".

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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