Press Council moves condemned

NEW DELHI, Oct 28: Close on the heels of the International Press Institute expressing concern over the hostile attitude of the Press Co...

NEW DELHI, Oct 28: Close on the heels of the International Press Institute expressing concern over the “hostile attitude of the Press Council of India (PCI) towards a large segment of the media” the India Country Report (ICR) of the Commonwealth Press Union (CPU) has described the recent moves and statements of PCI chairman Justice P B Sawant as a “threat to press freedom”.

At the CPU’s biennial conference in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, the ICR, presented by K N Shantha Kumar, noted that Justice Sawant had recently stated that the “influence wielded by the proprietors who used newspapers as a business was a major source of danger to the freedom of the press in India.”

The ICR noted with concern that the PCI had set up a committee to study the management and ownership structure of newspapers, which “is clearly outside the purview of its powers and responsibilities.” The report added that “deciding the nature and structure is implicit in the freedom of the citizens whose proprietorial rights arelegally guaranteed and the relationship between the editor and the proprietor is a self-defining one, regulated by its own demands and conventions. Any attempt by the PCI to lay down rules in these areas can only be viewed as a threat to press freedom.”

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In a related development, reports PTI, Justice Sawant today took strong objection to the IPI making “peremptory verdicts” on the council’s powers and mandate on the basis of “misinformation”.

Replying to the IPI statement urging the PCI, “to refrain from interfering in matters that should be determined by the market and the law of the land,” the PCI chairman said, “We have not reached a stage where we have to learn the law of our land and the mandate of the Press Council Act from others.”