Media accreditations in AP put on hold !

[Anta Assamey]

In a surprising development, the YSR Congress party government in Andhra Pradesh on Monday put on hold the issuance of new accreditation cards to be issued for media persons once in two years.

A government order to this effect was issued by T Vijay Kumar Reddy, ex-officio special secretary to the government in Information and Public Relations department in the evening.

As a result, the validity of existing accreditation cards, which would be lapsing by Tuesday (December 31, 2019), would be extended for another six months – from January 1 to June 30, 2020. A decision to give new accreditations would be taken by that time.

According to sources, the decision was taken in the wake of serious disputes among the journalist groups over the constitution of state-level accreditation committee last week.

The committee comprised representatives of various journalist unions, including AP Union of Working Journalists, AP Working Journalists Federation, Journalist Association of Andhra Pradesh, Electronic Media Journalists Association of AP etc.

However, there were complaints to the government by a section of journalists that some of these union representatives were appointed during the regime of the Telugu Desam Party and had close connections with the TDP leadership.

The complainants demanded that only those who are favourable to the present government be included in the committee. This resulted in a ruckus in the journalists’ community and finally, the commissioner had no option but to extend the validity of existing accreditation cards, pending reconstitution of the accreditation committee.