New Delhi: The Editors’ Guild of India on Friday, February 10, wrote to the presiding officers of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha to restore unrestricted access to cover parliamentary proceedings that journalists had since Independence.
“The practice of restricting the number of mediapersons, including those holding permanent accreditation, which came into force on account of COVID-19 protocols in 2020, still continues,” the letter addressed to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla said.
“As you are aware, journalists from print and electronic medium have been given access to cover the proceedings since the Constituent Assembly and later the first Parliament with the objective of keeping the citizens abreast with the work of their representatives, developments inside the House, and the dynamics outside. This is vital in a parliamentary democracy,” it added.
The media body also flagged the suspension of the Central Hall pass of senior journalists. It also raised concerns over the non-constitution of the press advisory committee of the Lok Sabha for three years.
The letter also said that the grant of temporary and visiting journalist passes has been suspended for two years. It added that the restricted access to cover parliamentary proceedings puts the young members of the media fraternity at a great disadvantage.
In the letter to Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, the Guild said: “Unfortunately, the practice of restricting the number of mediapersons, including those holding permanent accreditation and long and distinguished category was re-introduced for the current Budget session after you had in your benign wisdom deemed it fit to remove the same during the last Winter session.”
“The limited access during COVID-19 protocols could be appreciated but bringing back restrictions at a time when India remains in the forefront of maximum vaccination coverage remains unexplained and especially when life is near normal in every other sphere of activity,” it added.
The letter highlighted that even during Indira Gandhi’s Emergency period, when the government had invoked press censorship, journalists, who could not get accreditation from the Press Information Bureau for some reasons, were not denied access to cover the proceedings.
While pointing out that Central Hall access is given to accredited journalists after a minimum of 10 years of covering legislative proceedings, the Guild said, “A close contact between the press and the legislature is essential for keeping the public well informed and perhaps not advisable to abolish Central Hall facilities.”
The media body also noted the speaker’s observation back in 1956, when there was a move to dissociate journalists from the facility. “[The] Central Hall facility helps the journalists in having close discussions with ministers and the members with a view to know the real and comparatively better background of things than studying from the press gallery.”
Therefore, it has urged the government to restore complete access to all accredited mediapersons immediately, including the Central Hall.