Soon Goa Assembly will ask the reporters: Are you authorized to cover the news?

Panaji, May 10: Now soon Goa will reframe the media guidelines on the recommendations of state’s Editors’ Guild. It has been asked Government of Goa to refer already existing list of approved media organization for selecting media representatives for media accreditation.

Goa Editors Guild on Tuesday met the Speaker and proposed that a letter from the editor should be considered as the final document to ascertain the authenticity of the reporter and that only those media houses registered with the government should be considered for Assembly coverage.

Editors’ Guild held a meeting with the speaker of state legislative assembly Pramod Sawant on Tuesday. The guild also advised the government to recognize Editor’s letter as authentication for allowing journalists to cover the state assembly proceedings. The last date for sending suggestions with regards to draft guidelines is May 30 while the guidelines will be finalized by June 30.

“There was a little misunderstanding between the media and the Speaker’s office as we failed to mention that these are draft guidelines. All the States across the country have certain guidelines except for our State and there is a need for such guidelines. However, these are not the final guidelines. The draft guidelines before finalising will be placed before the Press Advisory Committee (PAC),” Sawant said, speaking to reporters after the meeting.

The Speaker also said that the draft guidelines will be placed before the Press Advisory Committee (PAC) before being finalised.

He added, “The issue had risen up because some journalists were found to be using expired cards unauthorized to cover the Assembly. All the editors met me today and gave two important suggestions which were welcomed while there were discussions on other issues as well.”

“We request that the Legislature Secretariat follow the approved list of the Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) for the process and trust the credential and judgment of the editors or the media organizations accredited to the State government through DIP,” Editors’ Guild chairman Arun Sinha said in a statement.