Various journalists’ organizations on associations and unions under the aegis of Press Club of India on Friday opposed the “unilateral and unfair” guidelines issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting recently on journalist

As per the the Central Media Accreditation Guidelines – 2022, announced on Monday, February 7, journalists acting in a manner prejudicial to the country’s “security, sovereignty and integrity”, as well as “public order, decency or morality” will lose their government accreditation.

Accreditation can also be suspended if a journalist or the media organization they represent is found to have furnished false or forged information or documents. In such an event, the journalist or the media organization shall be debarred from accreditation for up to a maximum of five years but not less than two years, as may be decided by the Central Media Accreditation Committee (CMAC), the guidelines said.

Reacting to the new guidelines, PCI in a statement “strongly opposed the unilateral and unfair decision of the in drastically altering the guidelines and forming a lopsided Central Media Accreditation Committee (CMAC)”.

“Both the guidelines and the CMAC violate the existing guidelines framed by the apex media body Press Council of India, ” it said.