NT NETWORK
PANAJI
Toning down the issue pertaining to the stringent guidelines related to the accreditation of journalists covering the proceedings of the state legislative assembly, Speaker Pramod Sawant on Wednesday said that the Office of the Speaker has no intention whatsoever to prevent journalists from covering the proceedings of the state legislative assembly, whenever the House is in session, and all the representatives of the bonafide news organisation would be permitted in the assembly.
The Goa Union of Journalists has already opposed these guidelines stating that they are totally unacceptable.
GUJ president Kishor Naik Gaonkar stated that these guidelines be withdrawn immediately or be drastically modified. He also informed that a related memorandum would soon be submitted by GUJ to the Office of the Speaker.
Meanwhile, speaking to this daily, the Speaker said that these are routine guidelines prepared from the security point of view, and not targeted towards anyone in particular.
“Anyone entering the assembly premises without proper credentials, on the pretext of covering the proceedings of the House, is definitely undesirable,” Sawant added, maintaining that these guidelines will only serve to streamline the entry of the journalists in the House. “No injustice will be done to any journalist with proper credentials,” he assured
“To cite an example, if a person running a website approaches us demanding permission to cover the proceedings of the House, how would he fit into the press accreditation criteria,” the Speaker questioned, arguing that if restriction is not placed on such people, then there would be a problem from the security point of view.
The guidelines mandate that correspondents of only those newspapers with a circulation of 15,000 copies and above would be allowed accreditation, with special exceptions to be made at the discretion of the Office of the Speaker, in case the circulation of any daily is below 15,000.
These guidelines further state that correspondents of only those online portals with a daily page view count of 10,000 and an annual revenue generation of Rs 10 lakh would be allowed access to the assembly to cover its proceedings.
The guidelines also bar representatives of weeklies, fortnightlies and monthlies from being admitted to the state legislative assembly press gallery.