Three media organisations write to speaker LS demanding lifting of superfluous restrictions on scribes covering parliament

The Press Club of India president Gautam Lahiri, President , Indian Women Press Corps Parul Sharma and President of Press Association C.K. Nayak have demanded unrestricted entry of journalists covering parliament for the last more than a decade to Lok Sabha Press Gallery and Parliament House. In a letter addressed to the Lok Sabha speaker Shri Om Birla the three media organisations have also demanded the reconstitution of the now lying defunct Lok Sabha Press Advisory Committee with immediate effect in addition to the unrestricted entry in the Lok Sabha gallery n Parliament house. The letter mentions that as the 18 th Lok Sabha’s first session commenced , the journalist associations are pained to learn that senior n veteran journalists who had been covering the parliament proceedings of both the houses have been restricted entry to parliament as the annual passes for media organisations have remained suspended since March 2020. Only a limited number of journalists are allowed to cover the parliament proceedings who are given the access arbitrarily. A large number of veteran journalists accredited to Lok Sabha as L& D ( under the Long and Distinguished category) are also not allowed to enter the parliament premises. The leaders of the press organisations as below have emphatically said to the speaker that we have repeatedly raised this important matter number of times on various occassions n have drawn your attention towards these superfluous restrictions having no legal basis nor rationale but nothing fruitful came out of it. These unreasonable restrictions being a part of a wider agenda aimed at controlling the media though no such restrictions exist in rest of the country or Delhi unambiguously indicate that these are purely superfluous restrictions which also violate the letter and spirit of Article 19(1) (A) of the constitution that guarantees freedom of Press. The letter expressed its serious disenchantment over the inaction by the government despite repeated requests by the Press Club of India and other distinguished media organisations including the Editors Guild of India urging to lift the restrictions on the journalists covering parliament since March 2020. Such hindrances obstruct the democratic exchange of Ideas, limits public discourse, and weakens accountability and transparency of the Parliamentary system including impeding the Media’s ability to report on parliamentary proceedings etc said Gautam Lahiri, Parul Sharma n Mr. Nayak of PCI, IWPC and PA.