A tussle has erupted in the Press Council of India (PCI) over the selection of individuals and organisations to the 13th term of the council.
Chairperson of the PCI, justice CK Prasad, has submitted a dissent note to the information and broadcasting ministry against the report of a scrutiny committee set up to suggest appointments to the Council.
He has underlined that the seven-member scrutiny committee overlooked the constitution and criteria for selection to suggest ineligible organisations in the category for working journalists.
Though justice Prasad’s note does not give out names of these organisations, sources told HT the objections are to the inclusion of the Working News Cameramen’s Association (WNCA), Press Association, and Indian Journalists Union (IJU) to the Council’s working journalists’ section. The scrutiny committee had recommended giving two slots to IJU, Press Association, and WNCA and one to the National Union of Journalists.
While the WNCA is a body of camerapersons who are not eligible to be part of the PCI in the category of working journalists, the IJU is ineligible since its leadership is disputed after it split into two groups. The Press Association has not submitted document to prove their active existence.
The recommendations of the scrutiny committee headed by Uttam Chand Sharma, a five-time member of the Council and the editor of Muzzafarnagar Bulletin, was placed before the full-house of the commission at its recent meeting in Srinagar, where one of the members, Rajeev Rajan Nag, objected to the inclusion of both IJU and WNCA.
{{/usCountry}}The recommendations of the scrutiny committee headed by Uttam Chand Sharma, a five-time member of the Council and the editor of Muzzafarnagar Bulletin, was placed before the full-house of the commission at its recent meeting in Srinagar, where one of the members, Rajeev Rajan Nag, objected to the inclusion of both IJU and WNCA.
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