In a first Govt extends accreditation facility to representatives of online news portals

Srinagar/June,3: Given the vast growth and reach of the online news media, the Jammu and Kashmir Government has decided to extend accreditation facility to the news media representatives of the online News Portals operating in the State.
The News Media Accreditation Policy-2017 notified by the government on Monday has replaced the two-decade old Press Accreditation Policy which was in vogue since 1997.
Given the phenomenal transformation shaping up in J&K’s fast-changing media scenario, the Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) had last year moved a proposal for formulating a new News Media Accreditation Policy for the State.
Accordingly, a proposal was submitted to the Government in this regard with several new initiatives proposed by DIPR to be incorporated in the News Media Accreditation Policy to attune it with the fast-changing media scenario in J&K.
The State News Media Accreditation Policy-2017 was formally notified by the Government on 5 June 2017 with a wide-range of new initiatives having been incorporated in the new policy to be operationalized by DIPR.
In another significant move the Government has decided to extend the accreditation facility also to the Cartoonists working with various news media organizations in the State.
In another new initiative the Information Officers, Assistant Information Officers, Photographers and Videographers of DIPR will be also entitled to accreditation if they join a news media organization after retirement.
The Government has also increased the quota of accreditations to be given to the news representatives of various news media organizations on the basis of their reach and circulation.
Similarly, the quota has been also increased for the newspapers and each newspaper will get accreditation facility for its staff on the basis of the relevant category of the newspaper.
The Government has also decided to extend the tenure of the State Media Accreditation Committee (SMAC) from the present one year to 2 years.
The Minister for Information, Chowdhary  Zulfkar Ali said many new initiatives were in the offing for the journalists of the State.