Press Council at half strength for a year as I&B delays 13 notifications

The news

New Delhi, October 6. The Press Council of India (PCI) has worked at half its sanctioned strength for nearly a year without a single working journalist or newspaper editor, The Indian Express reports. Only 14 of 28 members are in place: five MPs, three nominees and six from newspaper owners and management, besides the chairperson. The 13 missing are six editors and seven working journalists, nominated by the PCI under Section 5(3)(a) between December 2025 and July 2026. Under Section 5(5), a nomination takes effect only when the Centre notifies it in the Official Gazette. The PCI wrote to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry on May 25, July 2 and September 9; the Ministry says notification is “at the final stage”. The chair itself lay vacant about four months until Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai was reappointed in April.

Static syllabus linkage

1. The Press Council is a statutory, quasi-judicial body for print only. The Press Council Act, 1978 creates a chairman and 28 members with three-year terms, charged under Section 13 “to preserve the freedom of the Press” and to improve standards of newspapers and news agencies. Under Section 14 it may warn, admonish or censure after inquiry, and its decision cannot be questioned in court. Broadcast and digital media lie outside it.
2. Press freedom is read into Article 19(1)(a). The Constitution does not name the press. In Romesh Thappar v. State of Madras (1950), the Supreme Court held that free speech includes freedom to circulate ideas, which covers the press. Restrictions must fit Article 19(2), which is why the 1978 Act relies on peer censure, not licensing.

Why UPSC loves this

1. Regulators hollowed by vacancies are a governance theme. GS2 lists “Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies”; a body left unconstituted by executive delay tests what statutory independence means.

Analysis

1. Lens — Independence and accountability: a pending signature has become a veto. The Act lets the profession choose its journalist members; the Ministry’s role under Section 5(5) is only to publish the names. Withholding that formal step for ten months gives the executive a veto the law never gave it. A thoughtful officer would treat notification as a duty with a deadline, not a discretion.
2. Self-regulation without the regulated loses its claim. Censure works because it comes from peers. A Council judging press conduct with no editor or reporter lacks that authority, and its orders may invite challenge. Delay thus weakens both protection and accountability.
3. The fix is a timeline in the statute. The chair stayed empty four months and the members a year because nothing forces timely action. Deemed notification after a fixed period would end the temptation to delay. Nominees may need verification, but not for ten months.

Administrator's brainstorm