A stringent provision has been included in the new Central Media Accreditation Guidelines-2022 issued by the Center, under which any journalist can lose official recognition if he “acts in a manner prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the state”. which is likely to affect friendly relations with foreign States, to disturb public order, decency or morality, or to promote contempt of court, defamation or offenses.”
The new accreditation guidelines announced by the Press Information Bureau, the official communications arm of the central government, open up government accreditation to web journalists for the first time, leaving even news aggregators out of its purview.
A senior government official told News18 that the entire process of accreditation has been streamlined, gray zones have been removed, there is complete clarity in the rules and there is no scope for interpretation or manipulation.
“The new rules are corrective. They are focused on professional work. Digital media has been given full recognition, which was lacking earlier. For the first time in history, foreign media will be recognized for full-time J visa,” the official said.
The official also pointed out that a journalist had previously been arrested on charges of spying for China, but could not be derecognised as there was no provision.
Explaining the new provisions, the official said, “In many cases of sexual and other cognizable offences, no action could have been taken earlier. Also, for the first time, the accreditation rules specifically mention ‘working journalists’, whereas till now They were shown as ‘representatives’.”
This is almost a year after it came out with new rules to regulate online media and OTT platforms and nearly a year and a half after the government agreed to include digital and electronic media journalists under the definition of ‘working journalist’.
Work on the new policy has been going on for the past several months. Both the provisions were not included in the government’s previous media accreditation policy, which was brought out in 2013, and introduced for the first time under the new accreditation policy, formulated by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
The old policy simply stated that once the Media Recognition Card would be withdrawn, the terms on which it was issued would expire and could be withdrawn or suspended in case of misuse.
The new policy also lists other instances in which the recognition of a journalist can be suspended. This includes a person charged with a “serious cognizable offence”, who uses the accreditation card for non-journalistic activities, leaves the organization on whose behalf the person was recognized or the organization ceases to exist. happened.
It also clearly indicates that the accredited media person shall not use the words “recognized by the Government of India” on public or social media profiles, visiting cards, letterhead or any other published work.
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