Journalist groups demand scrapping of new central press accreditation committee

NEW DELHI: Several journalists organisations on Thursday protested the reconstitution of the Central Press Accreditation Committee (CPAC), saying the nominees of the representative organisations have not been included.

The organisations demanded that the newly-constituted CPAC should be scrapped and a new committee be constituted by giving representation to all the organisations. 

In a joint statement issued here on Thursday, the Indian Journalists Union (IJU), Press Association (PA), Working News Cameramen Association (WNCA) and National Union of Journalists (India) (NUJ-I) said that it was for the first time that the CPAC was constituted by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) by "cherry picking" journalists in the committee. 

"It is very unfortunate that the present Central Press Accreditation Committee does not have a representative character to protect the interests the working journalists and their collective voice is excluded," said the statement.

It said the government had chosen to send a strong signal to the working journalists that "it will have its way in giving or denying accreditations to working journalists. This amounts to an attack on independent journalism and is not acceptable".

Meanwhile, the organisations welcomed the decision of the I&B Ministry to nominate journalists on the Journalists Welfare Committee.