Press Council of India restored; 13 members nominated

PCI, a statutory autonomous body, was established under the Press Council Act, 1978, primarily to preserve press freedom and improve the standards of newspapers and news agencies in the country. Credit: PCI website

The government on Wednesday (October 8, 2026) reconstituted the Press Council of India (PCI) with the addition of 13 members, mostly editors and working journalists.

The PCI is headed by Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai (retired) and has 14 members, including five MPs, six representatives of newspaper owners and three experts from the Bar Council of India (BCI), University Grants Commission (UGC) and Sahitya Akademi.

Now the government has nominated six editors and seven working journalists, apart from editors, as PCI members.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (a) of sub-section (3) and sub-section (5) of section 5 read with sub-section (1) of section 6 of the Press Council Act, 1978 (37 of 1978), the Central Government hereby nominates the following members to the Press Council of India,” said a notification issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

In the category of Working Journalists (Editors category), the nominees were — Pradeep Kumar Jain, Sayed Raza Husain Rizvi, Ankur Dua, Aparna Shukla, Raj Parwana/Narender Singh and Vinod Bajpai.

Those nominated for Working Journalists (Other than Editors) are — Vinod Kohli, Geetartha Pathak, Prajnananda Chaudhuri, Kingshuk Pramanik, CK Nayak, Prasanna Kumar Mohanty and Bijoy Kakchingtabam.

PCI, a statutory autonomous body, was established under the Press Council Act, 1978, primarily to preserve press freedom and improve the standards of newspapers and news agencies in the country.

Published – 8 Oct 2026 08:06 IST