The Central government on Monday released the Central Media Accreditation Guidelines-2022, under which the accreditation will be withdrawn or suspended if a journalist acts in a manner prejudicial to the country’s security, sovereignty and integrity, friendly relations with foreign States, public order or is charged with a serious cognisable offence.
Among the other circumstances under which the accreditation can be withdrawn/suspended are actions prejudicial to decency, or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.
According to the guidelines, accredited media persons have been prohibited from using the words “Accredited to the government of India” on public/social media profile, visiting cards, letter heads or on any other form or any published work.
In the case of digital news publishers, the general terms of accreditation would apply. News aggregators will not be considered. The digital news publishers applying for accreditation should have furnished requisite information to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting under Rule 18 of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code), Rules, 2021, and have not violated the rules.
The website should have continuously operated for at least one year. The Editor of the news portal should be an Indian national. The website should have a registered office in India and the correspondents should be based in Delhi or National Capital Region.
No accreditation will be granted to freelance journalists working for foreign news media organisations.