Central press accreditation panel reconstituted

The information and broadcasting ministry on Monday reconstituted the Central Press Accreditation Committee (CPAC) that issues Press Information Bureau (PIB) cards to journalists.

According to an official statement released by the ministry, PIB director general Frank Noronha will be the ex-officio chairman of the committee.

Journalists in the committee include Pramod Kumar of National Union of Journalists (India), International Federation of Journalists; Surendra Verma of Association of Accredited News Cameraman; Shyam Babu of Indian Federation of Working Journalists; Rabi Rath from Association of Small and Medium Newspapers of India and Meenakshi Pandit from All India Journalists Welfare Association.

Supriya Prasad of News Broadcasters Association; Rahul Kanwal of Broadcast Editors Association; Ira Jha of Press Association; L.C. Bhartiya of All India Small & Medium Newspapers Federation; Sabina Inderjeet of Indian Journalists Union and M.K. Mahadev Rao of Working News Cameramens Association will be the members.

Among the nominated members are Navika Kumar (Times Now), Diwakar Asthana (The Times of India), Coomi Kapoor (Indian Express), Jayanto Ghoshal (ABP), Amitabh Sinha (IBN-7 TV), Akhilesh Sharma (NDTV), Kalyan Barua (Assam Tribune), Iftikhar Geelani (DNA), Nistula Hebbar (The Hindu) and Shekhar Iyer (Deccan Herald).

The tenure of the CPAC shall be for a period of two years from the date of its first meeting, the statement added.