New Delhi: The Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) has expressed “serious concern” at reports that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and select ministries are trying to collect details of all institutions and clubs in Delhi, including press bodies and conference centres, to monitor the internal affairs of such bodies.
According to the Hindustan Times, the PMO had sent out a communication to top officials in the government, including the home secretary and cabinet secretary, to carry out an urgent review of all such spaces. It had also sought information on the events hosted in the last one year by such centres, which receive government financial aid or stand on government land.
Officials had been given two days’ time to submit such details, and the deadline ended on Tuesday, November 16 evening. “It is requested the information sought as attached be shared. Details related to the ministry/ institutions/ autonomous bodies of the ministry may be shared by 16 November, 5 pm,” an email from PMO’s deputy secretary Amarapali Kata had said.
Responding to PMO’s communication, DUJ appealed to the government to ensure that bodies dealing with freedom of the press and problems of journalists and holding seminars and discussions are “not meddled with”. The press body has also expressed concern at the “selective targeting” of clubs and other elected bodies of journalists.
The DUJ press statement said it is of “serious concern” that apart from other bodies even the high office of the PMO has started pressing for urgent reviews of clubs and conference halls and demanded lists of events hosted by them in the national capital.
“Ironically many of these moves started taking off on National Press Day, November 17, 2022 which once was a day for the press to take stock and assert its independence,” the press statement said.