Amaravati: GO on accreditation for journalists challenged

Nelapadu (Amaravati): The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday issued notice to the State government returnable in four weeks to give clarification on GO No 142 issued to accord accreditation to the journalists.

General Secretary of Andhra Pradesh Media Federation P Delhi Babu Reddy challenged the issuance of GO No 142 replacing the earlier GO No 92 issued in 2005 by the then government setting rules and regulations to accord accreditation to the journalists.

The Division Bench of the High Court comprising Justice Akula V Sesha Sai and Justice Krishnamohan instructed the Secretary of the Information and Public Relations Department and the Information Commissioner to file the affidavit in four weeks after the Advocate General said that he had no information on the issue.

The State government replaced the earlier GO 92 with the latest GO 142 in December last year. The journalist unions neither challenged the new government order nor protested its issuance. "If the new order was implemented several thousands of journalists would lose their accreditation and in particular the journalists working for small newspapers would never get accreditation at all," Delhi Babu Reddy pointed out.