India needs a fully functioning government-sponsored media watchdog to cater the increasing need of millions of media professionals, but the Press Council of India (PCI) which remains nearly inactive for a full year now. The quasi-judicial body, which was initiated to safeguard and nurture the freedom of press in the largest democracy on Earth, continues to be non-functioning since 5 October 2024 (the date of expiry of PCI’s 14th Council). Since then various initiatives to constitute the statutory 15th council to carry forward its prescribed activities confronted different multi-layered hurdles. Currently the PCI has its chairperson (Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai) and secretary (Shubha Gupta) along with functioning members namely Rajya Sabha lawmakers Sudhanshu Trivedi and Brij Lal, Ashwini K Mohapatra (University Grants Commission), Manan Kumar Mishra (Bar Council of India) and K Sreenivasarao (Sahitya Akademi), all who assumed charges on 20 December 2024 for a three-year term.
Months back, Union information & broadcasting minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed that Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla had nominated three members (Sambit Patra, Naresh Ganpat Mhaske and Kali Charan Munda) for the 15th council. Lately six members namely Sudhir Kumar Panda, MV Shreyams Kumar, Gurinder Singh, Arun Kumar Tripathi, Braj Mohan Sharma and Arti Tripathi (who either own or carry on the business of management in big/ medium/ small newspapers) have been included in the council. The 28-member PCI should have 13 individuals representing the professional journalists (out of whom 6 need to be editors of newspapers and 7 working journalists) and those seats are still vacant.
The present crisis started as many all India journo-bodies opposed a change in the PCI rules to pick up members from various press clubs instead of the national union of working journalists. Some of them even approached the court making the situation more complex. They argue that the press clubs are basically recreational bodies and their coverage areas normally stick to a particular region, city or town. Often the press clubs offer memberships to non-working journalists (like academicians, writers, film personalities and diplomats) to enhance their influences, and hence their members may not do justice to the professional media personnel in various crucial junctures. More precisely the press club/press guild/ media club cannot have an all India body (even though the nomenclature like Press Club of India exists) with representatives from various parts of the vast country. In contrast, the recognized national journo-bodies usually pick up members from different parts of the country.
For records, the PCI is an autonomous body, which was initially set up in 1966 under the Press Council Act 1965 and later re-established in 1979 following the Press Council Act 1978 with an objective to improve the standard of newspapers and news agencies in the billion plus nation. India today nurtures nearly 100,000 publications (endorsed by the Registrar of Newspapers for India) in various frequencies and languages including English. It also supports nearly 400 satellite news channels along with thousands of portals, whatsapp channels and other digital outlets. The revenues collected (from both selling and advertisements) by Indian newspapers, periodicals started shrinking after the Covid-19 pandemic as the other media outlets came to dominate the financial market space. However, many print observers believe that the traditional media will slowly recover its abrupt loss. Resurgence in print readership is expected as ‘digital fatigue’ will drive consumers to traditional media once again. They argue that the print media outlets across the populous country will increase its readership almost twice by 2030.
Even though the PCI can only overview the functioning of newspapers, periodicals and news agencies only and it has limited power to enforce its guidelines by penalizing print outlets as well their editors and working journalists for the violation, it also enjoys the authority to make observations if the conduct of any government is found inappropriate while ensuring freedom of the press. The PCI, which has the authority to receive complaints against a particular newspaper/news agency or an editor/working journalist regarding their professional misconduct deteriorating the standard of journalistic behaviours, it can also safeguard the interest of media personnel. Now demands have been raised to bring all the news channels, radio and digital platforms under the PCI’s jurisdiction.
Can PCI avoid comprising working journalists ?
