Press Council pulls up Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot for comments against media

The Press Council of India has taken suo moto cognizance of comments made by Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot three years ago that his government would only give advertisements to media that report "positive stories" about the State government, and cited "extreme displeasure" at its advertising policy that allegedly discriminated against a newspaper for three years. The council is a statutory, quasi-judicial body meant to be a watchdog for newspapers and news agencies.

Rakesh Sharma, editor of a newspaper, Rashtradhoot said he had approached the PCI after his paper had reported a statement made by Gehlot in a press conference celebrating the one-year anniversary of his state government in December 2019. The CM had then asked media organisations to expect ads from the government only if they reported positive stories of the developmental work it was doing. The PCI had asked its inquiry committee to look into the matter and had also issued a notice to the State government.

"We were penalised for three years, and I am grateful that the PCI finally took note. The case was stuck because of covid-19 related delays, and repeated avoidance by the State government to provide details of how they had spent their advertising budget," he told ET.


The new committee of the PCI that met last month went through the findings of the inquiry committee and decided to pull up the Gehlot government. Members were also made to hear an audio recording of the CM as the State government had initially said that his statement had been "misreported."

On Tuesday, the full council met, ratified its decision and said that the statements made by the CM "would restrict the supply and dissemination of news of public interest."

"The Press council on consideration of records of the case and report of the inquiry committee accepts reasons, findings and adopts the report of the committee and decides to expressits "extreme displeasure" about the statement in questions made by the CM," the order, seen by ET, said.