Laying down stringent situations to let a journalist operate, the brand new accreditation coverage, introduced by the Press Information Bureau and ready by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, has a provision stating {that a} journalist can lose authorities accreditation if she or he “acts in manner which is prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement of an offence”.
Such a standards was not talked about within the final coverage issued in 2013. The earlier coverage, below normal phrases of accreditation, acknowledged that it “shall be withdrawn as quickly because the situations on which it was given stop to exist. Accreditation can also be liable to be withdrawn/suspended whether it is discovered to have been misused”.
The new coverage had been within the works for some time, and had led to delay in renewal of the prevailing accreditation playing cards. Under the brand new coverage, journalists working with on-line platforms will likely be eligible for accreditation.
It has a brand new part on situations below which a journalist’s accreditation might be suspended. It has ten factors, one in every of which additionally mentions that accreditation might be suspended if a journalist is charged with a “serious cognisable offence”.
The different situations for suspension of accreditation contains utilizing it for “non-journalistic activities”, has furnished false data, if the group the journalist was a part of ceases to exist, or the journalist has left the organisation, amongst others.
It additionally prohibits a journalist from mentioning “accreditated to the Government of India” on social media, visiting playing cards or letterheads and so on.
Accreditation permits journalists to entry authorities workplaces in Delhi, and is required for entry to sure occasions wherein the President or the Prime Minister are current.
The new coverage, for the primary time, has ready tips for accreditation of journalists working for on-line information platforms. However, information aggregators is not going to be thought of.
The coverage states that the web platform will need to have existed for over a yr, and must report the web site’s “average monthly unique visitor count of last six months duly certified by the website’s CAG-approved/ empanelled auditors”. A web site with 10 to 50 lakh distinctive guests monthly can get one journalist accreditated, whereas one with over 1 crore distinctive guests monthly can get 4 journalists accredited.
Journalists working with newspapers, weekly or fortnightly magazines, information businesses, international publications, TV channels or businesses, and Indian TV information channels are additionally eligible for accreditation, primarily based on the scale of every platform.
There are 2457 PIB accredited journalists in the intervening time. Apart from journalists working with the organizations talked about, freelancers with over 15 years of expertise, and veteran journalists with over 30 years of expertise, over 65 years outdated, with a “publicly recognized distinguished career” are additionally eligible.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
