The Press Council of India has censured 51 newspapers, largely with local circulation, for violation of Information and Broadcasting Ministry’s Print Media Advertisement Policy, 2016.

According to an earlier press release issued by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, the new policy was designed to “incentivise newspapers who have better professional standing”. The policy also intended to give such newspapers an opportunity to get their circulation verified by the Audit Bureau of Circulations or the Registrar of Newspapers for India.

The September 13 notice that has censured over four dozen publishers including Dainik Jagran (Delhi) and Times of India (Bhubneshwar), has also temporarily suspended them from the Directorate of Advertising & Visual Publicity’s (DAVP) panel.

In the notice issued by the directorate, RC Joshi, DAVP’s director, has also stated that publishers that are not on the DAVP panel have been suspended from the Press Council. Such publishers will not be empanelled or re-panelled for the next two months, the advisory states. This would remain so even if the publishers fulfill other conditions as required under 2016 policy.

The advisory published the names of the newspaper and it also clearly stated the reasons for their suspension. While Delhi’s Dainik Jagran was  censured for “severe insinuation against complainant” without justification for the “publication of impugned news item”, the reason for Times of India was “aggrieved by a news item and newspaper not accepting mistake”.