Ranjona Banerji: To rule them all and in the darkness bind them…

By Ranjona Banerji

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry, an anachronistic ministry if there ever was one, has taken it upon itself to crack down on “fake news” by issuing guidelines for the print and broadcast media. The notification, issues on April 2, reads:

“Noticing the increasing instances of fake news in various mediums including print and electronic media, the Government has amended the Guidelines for Accreditation of Journalists. Now on receiving any complaints of such instances of fake news, the same would get referred to the Press Council of India (PCI) if it pertains to print media & to News Broadcasters Association (NBA) if it relates to electronic media, for determination of the news item being fake or not.

Determination is expected to be completed within 15 days by these regulating agencies. Once the complaint is registered for determination of fake news, the correspondent/journalist whoever created and/or propagated the fake news will, if accredited, have the accreditation suspended till such time the determination regarding the fake news is made by the regulating agencies mentioned above.

The Accreditation Committee of the PIB which consists of representative of both PCI and NBA shall be invariably be reached out to for validating any accreditation request of any news media agency. While any confirmation of publication or telecast of fake news having been confirmed by any of these agencies, the accreditation shall be suspended for a period of 6 months in the first violation and for one year in the case of 2 nd violation and in the event of 3rd violation it would be cancelled permanently.

While examining the requests seeking accreditation, the regulatory agencies will examine whether the `Norms of Journalistic Conduct’ and `Code of Ethics and Broadcasting Standards’ prescribed by the PCI and NBA respectively are adhered to by the journalists as part of their functioning. It would be obligatory for journalists to abide by these guidelines.”

http://pib.nic.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1527361#.WsJhPUhE6TQ.twitter

As the matter brewed all morning, with anger in print and on social media, a news flash made the rounds at 12.30 pm on Tuesday, saying that the Prime Minister had asked that the press release about this notification be withdrawn and that all further discussion should be directed to the Press Council of India.

Interesting as this turn of events is, it is still important to look into why this notification was put out in the first place. We can guess that it was withdrawn because of the outrage. I leave it to other political analysts to decode this disconnect between the Prime Minister and I&B Minister.

There can be no doubt in anyone’s mind that this notification is one more attempt by this Narendra Modi-led government to threaten and silence the media – whatever media there is that does not already kowtow to the government.

Because if you break down this notification, what do you get? Accreditation to PIB is not essential to be a journalist, although it is used by those with it to get “deep access” without being harassed. However, in many ways, it is also a dodgy official way of granting favours on the pretext of granting access to government agencies, plus some gifts like discounts on railway fares and in the past, discounts on laptops and so on. Many of us know people who were never journalists but still manage to get “accreditation”. (Like all those “press” stickers on cars which have no connection with journalism.) Why, in a democracy, you need a government stamp of approval on a journalist is beyond me. Very Soviet. The same way that getting Padma awards from the government is questionable. No good journalist can be rewarded by a government. Turn those awards down. Our job is the opposite of that.

The Press Council of India (PCI) is an advisory body with no teeth and the National Broadcasting Association (NBA) has some jurisdiction over its members but not all news channels in India are members.

In which case, this notification is nothing but a form of intimidation, one more threat held over our heads. Already, editors and reporters have been sacked for not toeing the government line, for not reporting favourably (as in pro-government) on certain events, on having difficult opinions or being critical of the government. Worse of course is that journalists have been threatened, harassed, killed for doing their jobs. How many “notifications” did we see then?

India’s position on the World Press Freedom Index is 136 of a list of 180 countries. This notification is an attempt to drive us further down.

I am grateful that websites have been left out of this notification. However, that is possibly because the most Fake News is pushed out from several rightwing, pro-government websites…

So now what happens? Will the notification exist in practice but not in law?

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Very sorry to hear about the death of an old friend, Parthasarathi Swami. He passed away in Mumbai on Monday night. An excellent business journalist, he was managing editor of Business India. MxMIndia’s commiserations to his family and friends.

Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She is also Consulting Editor, MxMIndia. The views here are personal