Centre gears up to stifle ‘Press Freedom’

Some amendments which have the potential to stifle the freedom of media have been made in the guidelines of media person accreditation by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting which is headed by Senior BJP leader Smriti Irani.

As per the new guidelines, if the news story reported by a journalist is found to be less genuine, his/her accreditation can be cancelled by the concerned authorities.

According to the guidelines, if a journalist is found to be guilty for the first time, his/her accreditation can be temporarily suspended for a period of six months; if the same journalist repeats the mistake, in the second time the suspension period can be extended up to one years; if he/she commits the same mistake for the third time, his/her accreditation can be suspended permanently.

As per the information, all complaints received regarding fake news will be forwarded either to Press Council of India or to News Broadcasters Association, depending on the nature of complaints, to find whether there are merits in it.

Anyway, the new guidelines launched by the Saffron regime, are likely to invite serious criticism. There are allegations that since its induction, the saffron regime has been clandestinely trying to derail various freedoms guaranteed by the Indian constitution.

Vignesh. S. G

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