India: Awaiting An Effective Press Council – OpEd
It may be astonishing for many but true, India does not house a fully functioning government-recognized press watchdog to safeguard and nurture freedom of the press in the largest democracy.
Press Council of India (PCI), a quasi-judicial body, continues to be without an effective committee after the term of PCI’s 14th council expired on 5 October 2024 (https://www.presscouncil.nic.in/TermsOfCouncilPCI.aspx). Moreover, no visible initiatives have been taken to constitute the statutory 15th council of the PCI with an aim to carry forward its prescribed activities.
Terming the delay in the constitution of a new council as surprising, various journalist-bodies in the south Asian country have urged the concerned authorities to do the needful. Many of them also urged the Union information & broadcasting ministry for empowering the PCI with bringing the news channels, radio and digital platforms under its jurisdiction and if necessary rename it as the Media Council of India (or any meaningful forename).
Needless to mention that the PCI is an autonomous body, which was initially set up in 1966 under the Press Council Act 1965 and later re-established in 1979 following the Press Council Act 1978 with a primary objective to ensure press freedom and also improve the standards of newspapers and news agencies in the populous country. The council enjoys a three-year term and the continuity broke last year as the chairperson probably failed to constitute a full-fledged new council. The PCI comprises a chairman (by convention a retired Supreme Court Judge) and 28 members, where 13 individuals represent the professional journalists out of whom 6 need to be editors of newspapers and 7 working journalists. Another 6 members represent the management of newspapers (including the owners), 2 each taken from the big, medium and small newspapers, whereas 1 member represents the news agencies.
According to a PIB report on 8 August 2025, the constitution process of the 15th press council is progressing as the majority of nominations were already finalized. Quoting Union information & broadcasting minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who submitted the information in Rajya Sabha, the report added that in terms of sub-section 3(a) of section 5, thirteen members are to be nominated among the working journalists of whom six shall be editors of newspapers and the remaining seven shall be working journalists other than editors. “The process of nomination of these members is sub-judice before the Delhi High Court,” it said.
The government controlled agency also revealed that in terms of sub-section 3(e) of section 5, five shall be members of Parliament of whom three shall be nominated by the Lok Sabha speaker and two by Rajya Sabha chairman, where the speaker’s nominations were received and the chairman’s nominations issued.
As per the PCI website (www.presscouncil.nic.in), except the chairperson (Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai since 17 June 2022) and secretary (Shubha Gupta, who assumed charge on 20 January 2025), the PCI currently have only five members (who assumed charges on 20 December 2024 for three-year term) comprising Rajya Sabha lawmakers Sudhanshu Trivedi and Brij Lal along with Ashwini K. Mohapatra (University Grants Commission), Manan Kumar Mishra (Bar Council of India) and K. Sreenivasarao (Sahitya Akademi). The rest of the seats are still vacant till date.
Meanwhile, Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla nominated three members namely Sambit Patra, Naresh Mhaske and Kali Charan Munda for the 15th press council.
The billion plus nation today nurtures nearly 100,000 publications (endorsed by the Registrar of Newspapers for India) in various frequencies and languages including English. It also supports nearly 400 satellite news channels along with thousands of portals, whatsapp channels and other digital outlets. The revenues collected (from both selling and advertisements) by Indian newspapers, periodicals including magazines continue shrinking after the Covid-19 pandemic as the other media outlets started dominating the financial market space. However, many print observers believe that the traditional media will slowly recover its abrupt loss. Resurgence in readership is expected as ‘digital fatigue drives consumers’ will soon turn back to traditional media for reliable information. They argue that the print media outlets will increase the number of readers almost twice by 2030.
Lately, a number of media bodies have also opposed a change in the PCI rules while picking up members from various press clubs instead of the national union of working journalists. They argue that the press clubs are mandated usually for recreational activities and their coverage areas normally stick to a particular region, city or town. Press clubs often give memberships to non-working journalists (like academicians, writers, film personalities and also diplomats) to enhance their influences. Moreover, the press club/press guild/ media club cannot have an all India body with representatives from various parts of India. On the other hand, the recognized journalist’s unions are normally represented by the members from most parts of India. Indian Journalists Union and All India Working News Cameramen’s Association have already approached the court seeking justice for the media professionals based in different parts of the vast country.
Even through, the PCI can only overview functioning of newspapers, periodicals and news agencies and it enjoys limited power for enforcing the guidelines by penalizing news outlets as well their editors and working journalists for violation of established guidelines, but still it can receive complaints against a particular newspaper/news agency or an editor/working journalist against their professional misconduct deteriorating the standard of journalistic behaviours for adjudications. Moreover, it enjoys the authority to make observations if the conduct of a current government is found inappropriate while ensuring freedom of the press. Hence the PCI should be reactivated and realigned with the inclusion of all kinds of modern media outlets under its purview to address the present crisis faced by the media fraternity as early as possible.
Is the concerned authority listening?
