We are happy to inform you that the Mumbai Press Club, for the first time in its 50 years history has found representation in the watchdog media body, the Press Council of India (PCI). In the fresh round of nominations for the Council’s 14th term, Gurbir Singh, Chairman of the Mumbai Press Club, has been nominated as a member of the PCI in the category of ‘Working Journalists’. The members of the new council shall serve for a period of three years.

The Press Council of India (PCI), set up by an act of Parliament in the year 1966, is a quasi-judicial body, primarily tasked with safeguarding the freedom of the press. Its mandate for the print media also includes ‘the maintenance of high standards of public taste and to foster due sense of both the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.’

Under the leadership of the current chairman, Justice C K Prasad, the PCI – which so far had a limited representation of groups based in Delhi – has for the first time invited broader representation including press clubs and local unions of journalists. For the first time perhaps in its history, the PCI has provided representation to press clubs, which in this term include the Mumbai and Kolkata press clubs.

The Mumbai Press Club and its representative, as part of the 25-member PCI, will endeavour to work with other like-minded groups for the freedom of the press and to improve the lot of journalists. It is also important that the mandate of the PCI be broadened by an amendment of the Press Council Act to include other sections of media like broadcast TV, and digital media platforms.