New Delhi: The recent controversial announcement by the government to punish ‘fake news’ spreading journalists and then it’s with drawl has got a new explanation from the Information ministry. The cancellation of the order was done after consultations held with the media agency Press Council of India or PCI and the News Broadcasters Association, according to a top government functionary in the Information and Broadcasting ministry. The official announcement was made late on Monday evening, which led to a series of critical responses from many sections for a whole day.
The next day, about at the same time the Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani announced about the opportunity to hold discussions with journalists about the issued guidelines, the Prime Minister’s Office sent a message to cancel the statement put out by the government’s spokesperson, Press Information Bureau.
The guidelines had provisions for automatic suspension of a journalist’s accreditation as soon as someone complains about him reporting ‘fake news’.
There were more stringer penalties if Press Council of India and the National Broadcasters Association, that plays the role of media regulator for print and electronic media respectively were given the authority to conclude whether the journalist had reported a “fake news”.
If the particular journalist is found to be guilty of reporting, publishing or propagating fake news, the accreditation will be suspended for at least six months for the first violation and for a total year in such a case of a second violation. And for the third offence, the journalist’s accreditation will be cancelled on a permanent basis.
The ministry says that the issued guidelines were in fact contrary to some statements and were discussed with NBA and the PCI representatives over the past month. “There are minutes of meetings on this,” the source said, while adding that a senior official K Sanjay Murthy had been met the representatives too.
Former union minister Arun Shourie believes that the statement and the guidelines issued were in fact was a trial balloon. The lesson from this recent aborted attempt, according to him, was that each and every time the government tries to do something similar, “each time there should be a tsunami of backlash that they withdraw”.
According to the order, as soon as a complaint is registered for “determination of fake news,” the accreditation of the journalist who “created and/or propagated the fake news” will be “suspended till a time the determination regarding the fake news is made by the regulating agencies mentioned above”.
A professional journalist is considered for accredition with the Press Information Bureau of the Centre after she/he has at least “five years’ experience as a full-time working journalist.” Freelance journalists need to have at least 15 years’ experience and foreign correspondents need to have five years with a valid work visa.
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