PCI adopts report indicting Nitish govt over press freedom

NEW DELHI: The Press Council of India ( PCI) has adopted a scathing report by a panel accusing the Nitish Kumar government of arm-twisting and muzzling the press in Bihar and it will now be sent to the Centre for "appropriate" action.

Sources told PTI that the report which had been prepared by a three-member fact finding team set up by PCI was adopted by the Press Council at a meeting held at Varanasi yesterday.

"The full council has approved it. Now the PCI will forward it to the central government for appropriate action," they said.

The scathing report, which will be sent to Information and Broadcasting Ministry, had alleged that free and fair journalism in Bihar was facing a situation of censorship.

The Bihar Chief Minister Kumar had, however, trashed the report when it came out in February and state officials had claimed that their version was never taken by the PCI team.

The sources said that the adopted report also carries a supplement in which the committee answered the charge levelled by the Bihar government.

The PCI appointed panel aid that it had already included Bihar Government officials' views in its report.

The members, during their visit, met the Director of the Bihar state Information and Public Relations and other senior officials in Patna and their reply on various issues were recorded, details of which were part of the draft report, the PCI appointed team said.

The sub-committee cannot be accused of not taking the views of Bihar Government into account, it added.

The fact finding team was headed by Rajeev Ranjan Nag. Arun Kumar and Kalyan Barooah, both members of PCI, were also part of the panel that had been set up by PCI chairperson Justice (retd) Markandey Katju to look into the complaints related to muzzling of press in Bihar.

The committee has said that due to government pressure, newspapers in Bihar were downplaying issues like corruption, ignoring the opposition and favouring the establishment in their news coverage.

It demanded that an independent agency be created to release advertisements to media strictly on basis of guidelines. The PCI panel had said that the entire media industry in Bihar depends mainly on the state government advertisements as being an industrially backward state, it lacked private commercial ads.

A letter was sent by secretary, Information and Public Relations of the Bihar government of Bihar to Press Council member Prakash Javdekar refuting the conclusions of the report and denying its findings.