Press Council of India, the government recognized autonomous media watchdog faces an existential crisis as the 15th council still devoid of a functioning head. Moreover, the press council is yet to appoint 13 members from the media fraternity. The regular three-year term along with six months extension of immediate past PCI chairperson Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai came to end on 16 December last year. At the same time, the tenure of 14th council expired on 5 October 2024 and currently the 15th council faces different hurdles to fill all the seats. At present, the functioning members include Sudhanshu Trivedi, Brij Lal (Rajya Sabha lawmakers), Sambit Patra, Naresh Mhaske and Kali Charan Munda (Lok Sabha members), Ashwini K Mohapatra (University Grants Commission), Manan Kumar Mishra (Bar Council of India), K Sreenivasarao (Sahitya Akademi) as well as 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). The 28-member PCI, 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 the objective to improve the standard of newspapers and news agencies in the billion plus nation, should have 13 individuals representing the professional journalists (out of whom 6 need to be editors of newspapers and 7 working journalists), but those seats remain vacant till date.
The crisis started as many national 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 also 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 (nonetheless the nomenclature Press Club of India) with representatives from various parts of the vast country. On the other hand, they argued that recognized journalist-unions usually comprise members from different parts of India.
If the PCI becomes headless, the question arises, who else will take care of the robust Indian print media fraternity (comprising over 100,000 publications, endorsed by the Registrar of Newspapers for India, in various frequencies and languages? The billion plus nation also supports nearly 400 satellite news channels along with millions of portals, whatsapp channels and other digital media outlets. However it deserves mention that the PCI can only overview the functioning of newspapers, periodicals and news agencies only. Rest of all modern technology-driven news outlets remain out of its purview. Moreover, the PCI has limited power to enforce its guidelines by penalizing print outlets as well their editors and working journalists for the violation. The PCI can receive complaints against a particular newspaper/news agency or an editor/working journalist against their professional misconduct deteriorating the standard of journalistic behaviours. More importantly, it also enjoys the authority to make observations whenever the conduct of any government is found inappropriate while ensuring freedom of the press. So the demand to bring all the news channels, radio and digital platforms under the PCI’s jurisdiction continues as well.
Waiting for a functioning Press Council
