REPORT BY INDEX MONITORING CELL
- March 15, 2021
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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REPORT BY INDEX MONITORING CELL
Subject : Important Reports
Context : Veteran journalist strikes a dissenting note in Index Monitoring Cell report.
Concept :
- Pointing out that the right to dissent should be the central focus of press freedom, independent journalist P. Sainath struck a dissenting note in the report submitted by the Index Monitoring Cell (IMC)
- It is set up by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry with stakeholders to improve India’s ranking in the World Press Freedom Index and to evolve an objective yardstick to gauge media freedom.
- The 15-member committee, has four journalists and government functionaries. Chaired by Kuldeep Singh Dhatwalia, Principal Director General of the Press Information Bureau, the committee has 10 government employees.
- Among the key recommendations is the decriminalising of defamation. India is one of the few countries in the world to criminalise defamation.
- The panel has also recommended that consent of the Press Council of India is a prerequisite before filing an FIR against the media or a publication.
- The meeting of the panel comes in the backdrop of a steady decline in India’s ranking in press freedom.
World Press Freedom Index
- It has been published every year since 2002 by Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) or Reporters Without Borders.
- Based in Paris, RSF is an independent NGO with consultative status with the United Nations, UNESCO, the Council of Europe and the International Organization of the Francophonie (OIF).
- OIF is a 54 french speaking nations collective.
- The Index ranks 180 countries and regions according to the level of freedom available to journalists.
- The parameters include pluralism, media independence, media environment and self-censorship, legislative framework, transparency, and the quality of the infrastructure that supports the production of news and information.