India news organizations Thursday protested restrictions on entry and access to the Parliament building in New Delhi which they claim has obstructed news reporting of the legislature’s proceedings and stifled freedom of the press.
The protest was announced by five news organizations, including the Press Club of India and Editors Guild of India, on behalf of journalists, editors, press correspondents and photojournalists covering the upcoming Indian Parliament’s winter session. They demanded the removal of restrictions on the entry of journalists into the Parliament complex and the Press Gallery and restoring access to all journalists having permanent passes. They also sought to restore veteran journalists access to the central halls and reconvene the Parliament’s Press Advisory Committee (PAC).
These restrictions were first imposed at the beginning of the pandemic. Since, they have continued for five Parliament sessions, even in times of lesser cases and opening up of other spaces such as malls, restaurants, cinemas, airlines etc. In the monsoon session of July, the Lok Sabha speaker had promised to remove restrictions and renew permanent passes for the next session. But authorities have instead introduced a lottery system to allow sixty journalists into the lower house (Lok Sabha) and 32 into the upper house (Rajya Sabha), out of which 11 and 10 slots, respectively, will be reserved for government-run media agencies.
In an open letter to the leaders of political parties in the Parliament, the Press Club of India stated:
“We are concerned that there is a depressing trend emerging to isolate parliament and parliamentarians from media gaze. This trend augurs ill of parliamentary democracy and much against the spirit of our parliamentary democracy.”
Opposition parties have extended support to the protesting journalists, terming free media as “the soul of a Parliamentary democracy.” Many parliamentarians are concerned that government-run media agencies will not show protests and criticisms of the opposition against the government. The Lok Sabha’s presiding officer, Om Birla, has given assurances that he will look into the demands of the journalists and resolve the ongoing impasse.
