Goa accreditation rules 2002 (currently in force)

[ACCREDITATION RULES, published by the Department of Information Series I No 39 dated December 26, 2002. Notification DI/INF/Acc.Com/2002/3502] The Government of Goa, in supersession of all previous notifications published in the Official Gazette, in this behalf, hereby makes the following rules, namely:-

1. SHORT TITLE AND COMMENCEMENT: (1) These rules may be called the Goa State Media Representative Accreditation Rules, 2002.

(2) They shall come into force from the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. DEFINITION: In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires:

(a) "Committee" means the Press Accreditation Committee constituted by the Government to advise the Government in respect of accreditation of media representatives working at the headquarters of the Government;

(b) "Government" means the Government of Goa;

(c) "editor" means the person defined as editor under the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867 (25 of 1867);

(d) "media representatives" means the correspondent, press photographer, sports journalist or representative of any newspaper, news agencies, broadcasting concern or electronic media, provided he/she is a working journalist;

(e) "Member Secretary" means the Director of Information of the Government;

(f) "newspaper" means any publication, printed and distributed at fixed intervals, which contains news and comment of public interest as defined in the Press and Registration of Books Act (25 of 1867) but not a publication containing information of sectional interest such as house journals;

(g) "State" means the State of Goa;

(h) "working journalist" means a working journalist as defined in the Working Journalists and Other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955 (45 of 1955), as amended from time to time;

(i) "accreditation" means recognition of media representatives by the Government for the purpose of access to sources of information in the Government and also to news materials, written or pictorial, released by the Department of Information and/or other agencies of the Government.

3. AMENDMENT TO RULES: These rules may be amended/altered/modified/added to on the recommendation of the Committee, if a proposal to this effect is made to the Committee, by at least three of its members or the Member Secretary.

4. APPLICATION OF RULES: These rules shall apply to the accreditation of media representatives to the Government at headquarters at Panaji.

5. CONSTITUTION OF COMMITTEE: (1) The committee shall consist of nine members including the Member Secretary.

(2) Three members shall be the nominees of the Goa Editors' Guild, or, in its absence, of the editors of daily newspapers published from Goa and four members will be nominees of the Goa Union of Journalists which shall include one photographer, besides one sports journalist, nominated by the Sports Journalists Association of Goa.

(3) The members of the Committee shall elect a Chairman from among themselves by a simple majority.

6 TERM OF COMMITTEE: (1) The normal term of the Committee shall be two years commencing from the date of its first meeting, but shall continue till a new Committee is constituted.

(2) The constitution of the new Committee shall not be delayed for more than three months after the expiry of the term of the existing Committee.

7 MEETINGS: The Committee shall meet once in every three months. The Member Secretary shall convene the meeting by fixing the date of the meeting and the agenda, inc consultation with the Chairman of the Committee.

8 QUORUM: Five members, excluding the Member Secretary, shall form a quorum of a meeting;

Provided that, if a meeting be adjourned to some other date for want of quorum, the adjourned meeting shall be held on such other date whether there be quorum present or not.

9 NOTICE: Seven clear days notice shall be given for convening a meeting of the Committee. But emergent meeting may however, be held after giving a 48 hour's notice.

10 APPLICATION FOR ACCREDITATION: (1) The application for the accreditation shall be submitted by the Editor of the newspaper, editor of a news agency, in-charge of news unit of the broadcasting concern and by the concerned head of news unit of the electronic media, etc., to the Member Secretary. Full details about the professional experience of the media representative shall be furnished with the application for accreditation, on a prescribed form available with the Member Secretary. The Member Secretary shall refer the applications to the Committee for consideration in its next meeting;

(2) The application referred to in sub-rule (1) shall also be accompanied by a letter from the Editor (or Resident Editor in case of outstation newspapers), recommending accreditation on behalf of the newspaper concerned. The application shall be accompanied by a letter from the in-charge of news unit of the broadcasting concern, concerned head of news unit in case of electronic media, and by the editor in case of a news agency.

(3) Accreditation on a provisional/temporary basis may be granted by the Member Secretary in consultation with the Chairman of the Committee, till such time as the committee meets thereafter, provided the applicant fulfils the conditions laid down for grant of accreditation on a regular basis and provided that he/she was accredited earlier to any other media organisation or has been posted as a replacement for a duly accredited correspondent and the media organisation concerned has no other accredited correspondent in Goa. No provisional accreditation shall be granted to a fresh applicant.

11. CONDITIONS FOR ACCREDITATION: (1) The media representative shall fulfil the following conditions for accreditation --

(i) His/her office should be normally in Panaji and he/she should submit contact address in Panaji at the time of application for accreditation and thereafter during the period of accreditation for the purpose of official correspondence.

(ii) The applicant should be a working journalist.

(iii) At the time of the application, the applicant who seeks accreditation should have spent not less than five years as a journalist. However, these requirements may be waived in case of new newspapers.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in clauses (i) and (iii) of sub-rule (1), the Committee shall be guided by the following aspect in recommending either grant or withdrawal of accreditation;

(a) regularity of newspaper/news agencies;

(b) submission of necessary papers in respect of salary, income, etc, by the applicant whenever the Committee so requires

(c) Newspapers shall publish minimum 350 issues, a weekly shall publish minimum 50 issues, a monthly shall publish minimum 12 issues and a fortnightly shall publish minimum 23 issues, per annum.

(3) In case of news agencies, etc, the factors to be taken into consideration to determine accreditation are:

(i) nature and type of the agency

(ii) method of distribution of its service

12 VALIDITY OF ACCREDITATION: accreditation shall be valid for a period of one year with effect from 30th June.

13 NUMBER OF CORRESPONDENTS TO BE ACCREDITED: (1) Newspapers shall not be entitled to have more than three accreditations for the daily published and printed in Goa. All other media organisations, including outstation daily newspapers, shall be entitled to one accreditation only.

(2) Any publication printed and published in Goa, which fulfils the conditions laid down in rule 11(2)(c), shall have, in addition to the above one accreditation each for a photographer and a sports journalist.

(3) A senior journalist may be granted accreditation on account of his/her retirement or otherwise, provided he/she has completed 25 years in the profession and 15 years as an accredited journalist or editor of a daily newspaper, and continues to be active as a journalist.

(4) Notwithstanding anything contained in subrules (1) and (2) above, the committee may change the number of accreditations for any daily newspaper arising out of its professional requirements after recording reasons in writing and being satisfied about the same.

14 EFFECT OF ACCREDITATIONS: (1) Accreditation does not confer any official status on the media representatives but shall recognise and identify him/her as a professional journalist dealing with news of public interest. He/she should not have letter heads, visiting cards and display boards with the words "Accredited to the Government of Goa" or any words to similar effect.

(2) Accreditation shall be used for journalistic purposes and for no other purposes.

15. ACCREDITATION IS PERSONAL: Accreditation is personal and not transferable.

16. ACCREDITATION CARD FOR PRESS REPRESENTATIVES: (1) Accreditation card bearing a passport size photograph of the media representatives will be issued to an accredited media representative by the Member Secretary.

(2) The accreditation card will normally be utilised for attending press conferences convened by the Government, or any authorised Government officer and for entry into Government offices.

(3) The accreditation card shall not be admissible for attending special functions or conferences, where entry is covered by special invitation cards and security passes.

(4) The accreditation card will entitle the holder to receive the facilities provided to him/her by the Government from time to time in respect of medical, transport, housing, Government accommodation in the State of Goa.

(5) Accreditation card shall be renewed each year between 1st June to 10th June.

17 LIST OF ACCREDITED MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES: The Member Secretary shall maintain a list of accredited media representatives representing any newspapers or news agency or a broadcasting concern or electronic media.

18 REVIEW OF LIST OF ACCREDITED MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES: (1) The list of accredited media representatives will be brought upto date once during the year by the Member Secretary in consultation with the Chairman of the Committee, in the light of changes in respect of accredited media representatives of outside newspapers, and dailies of the State.

(2) For the purpose of such a review, information regarding circulation may be called for and media representatives be asked to provide clippings of published dispatches or photographic or audio/visual clips from the news media organisation concerned.

19 WITHDRAWAL OF ACCREDITATION OF MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES: A media representative will be liable to dis-accreditation, if:

(a) he/she uses the information and facilities accorded to him/her for non-journalistic purposes;

(b) in the course of his/her duties as a correspondent, he/she behaves in an undignified or unprofessional manner;

(c) he/she ignores or violates the condition on which information and facilities are provided by the Government, or acts contrary to any provisions of these rules;

(d) the organisation on whose behalf the representative is accredited ceases its publication or the network ceases to function except for a short period for reasons of industrial disputes or natural calamities.

(e) the accredited representative is found to have given false information about himself/herself or about his/her organisation and if the Committee, after giving a reasonable opportunity to the representative concerned to defend himself/herself, is satisfied that the charges are true, the accreditation may be suspended/withdrawn for a period not exceeding two years, and during this period he/she shall not be eligible for the grant of further accreditation.

(f) He/she causes wilful publication of news that is incorrect or false, in so far as Government is concerned. But in case the newspaper itself is responsible and not the accredited media representatives for such wilful publication of false, malafide or incorrect reports, or abuse of confidence, the newspaper concerned shall be liable to dis-accreditation i.e. an action under these rules shall be taken by the Chairman of the Committee after the matter has been referred to him in writing by the aggrieved party. The Committee, after due study of the complaint, shall recommend appropriate action to be taken by the Government against the concerned media representative or newspaper and the Government decision in this regard shall be final.

(g) Provided that no decision to suspend/withdraw the accreditation of a media representative shall be taken by the committee except at a meeting attended by at least two-third of its members.

20 NOTICE OF TERMINATION OF ACCREDITATION OF A PRESS REPRESENTATIVE: When an accredited media representative ceases to represent a newspaper, news agency, broadcasting concern or electronic media on behalf of which he is accredited, the fact should be brought to the notice of the Member Secretary in writing by the media representative, or by the Editor, or the Manager concerned, within fifteen days, failing which the matter may be reported to the Committee by the Member Secretary for necessary action.

21 CONTINUOUS ABSENCE FROM THE HEADQUARTERS: An accredited media representative who is continuously absent for three months from the headquarters shall forfeit his/her accreditation, except on a written permission from the Editor or the Manager of the newspaper concerned to that effect, duly conveyed to the Member Secretary.

22 REPRESENTATION AGAINST DECISION: Newspapers/agencies and correspondents can make representation to the Secretary of Information to the Government against any decision related to dis-accreditation which is prejudicial to them. Such representation should reach the Secretary of Information to the Government within two calendar months from the date on which such decision was communicated to the newspaper, agency or media representative concerned.

23 POWER OF GOVERNMENT TO TAKE ACTION DEEMED FIT: Notwithstanding anything contained in these rules, the Government shall be free to take any action warranted by circumstances in matters relating to accreditation and dis-accreditation and in giving press facilities and in all these cases, the Government decision shall be final.

By order and in the name of the Governor of Goa.

Rajesh Singh, Director of Information and Publicity.

Panaji, 17th December, 2002.