Journalists can lose PIB accreditation over morality, national security

New Delhi, Feb 08: Journalists acting in a manner prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India could end up losing their accreditation. The new rules notified by the Press Information Bureau lists out 10 conditions for the loss of accreditation. They include submission of fraudulent documents or use of the accreditation for non-journalistic activities.

The accreditation can be withdrawn is a journalist is charged with a serious cognisable offence. Further journalists are prohibited from mentioning accredited to the government of India on the social media.

Journalists whoa re working for digital media news publishers, which are not aggregators and have shared their details under the Information and Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules will now be eligible for accreditation.

These journalists should have five years of experience for accreditation. A website must be at least a year old and have one million to five million unique views over the preceding six months to get a journalist accredited. Websites will over 10 million views are eligible for four accretions.