Fake News: All about Smriti Irani Ministry's rules for journalists propagating fake news withdrawn by PM Modi

After the central government has laid down guidelines for fake news, it is receiving criticism from the senior journalists and opposition parties. It has sparked a national debate on the government’s move. Some called it a move to harass journalists. But what are the guidelines all about?

Taking notice of spreading fake news, The Government of India has amended the Guidelines for Accreditation of Journalists. According to the amendment, if an accredited journalist will be accused of spreading fake news, he or she will lose his accreditation facilities.

These guidelines will be applicable to the print and broadcast media. If the complain is related to the print, it will be referred to the Press Council of India and it is related to broadcast, it will be referred to News Broadcasters Association (NBA)  for determination  of the news item being fake or not.

These regulating agencies will be given 15 days to determine the fake news. Once the complaint is registered for determination of fake news, the correspondent/journalist whoever created or propagated the fake news will, if accredited, have the accreditation suspended till such time the determination regarding the fake news is made by the regulating agencies.

The Accreditation Committee of the PIB which comprises of representative of both PCI and NBA shall always be reached out to for validation an accreditation request of any news media agency. On the confirmation of publication of telecast fake news by any of these agencies, the accreditation shall be suspended for a period of 6 months in the first violation. And in the second violation and the duration of cancellation will be for a year and in the third violation it would be cancelled permanently.

The regulatory agencies will examine the requests seeking accreditation whether the ‘Norms of Journalistic Conduct’ and ‘Code of Ethics’ and Broadcasting Standards’ prescribed by the PCI and NBA respectively are adhered to by the journalists as part of their functioning. Journalists are obligatory to abide by these guidelines.

 The guidlines were withdrawn by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.