Jammu Press Club calls for review of new accreditation formalities

JAMMU — Press Club of Jammu, the only elected body of scribes in UT Jammu and Kashmir, has appealed to the administration to review the list of formalities to be fulfilled by the journalists who desire to apply for fresh accreditation with the Directorate of Information and Public Relations.

In a meeting held here under the chairmanship of Press Club of Jammu president Sanjeev Pargal, the management committee has appealed to the Jammu and Kashmir Government, particularly the Information Department, to cut short a long list of formalities sought for accreditation of journalists, video journalists, freelance journalists and photographers, and all other categories.

The members observed that formalities asked for the accreditation of journalists should be cut short to facilitate the scribes to apply for it.

The Management Committee further observed that accreditation can be renewed in favour of all those who were already holding it when the annual renewal process was stopped by the Information Department as such journalists fulfill all preconditions and formalities.

"As far as the grant of accreditation to new journalists/photojournalists etc is concerned, a limited set of formalities can be sought and not too many which are beyond the compliance of many scribes," the Management Committee said.

The Press Club of Jammu was of the view that senior journalists including the Press Club of Jammu Management Committee, which is the only elected body of the journalists in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, should have been taken into confidence by the government as well as Information Department before issuing new accreditation rules and a long list of formalities to be submitted along with the application.

Noting that such a long list of formalities was never asked for in the past, the Management Committee asserted that earlier also the Information Department used to renew accreditation every year in March and grant new accreditations based on seeking a limited set of formalities which were easy to fulfill by the scribes.

The Management Committee expressed confidence that the Jammu and Kashmir Government as well as the Information Department, the nodal agency for dealing with media houses and journalists, would revisit the guidelines and act upon the suggestions made by the Press Club of Jammu.

This post first appeared on The Kashmir Pulse