The government has nominated 13 working journalists to the Press Council of India. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued the notification on October 7.

Six of the members are editors: Pradeep Kumar Jain, Sayed Raza Husain Rizvi, Ankur Dua, Aparna Shukla, Narender Singh and Vinod Bajpai. They were chosen from nominations by editors of newspapers in Indian languages.

The other seven are working journalists other than editors: Vinod Kohli, Geetartha Pathak, Prajnananda Chaudhuri, Kingshuk Pramanick, C.K. Nayak, Prasanna Kumar Mohanty and Bijoy Kakchingtabam.

The nominations were made under Section 5(5) of the Press Council Act, 1978. The council is headed by Chairperson Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai.

The new members will serve the 15th term of the council, which runs for three years from the date of notification. The Press Council of India is the statutory body that preserves press freedom and maintains journalistic standards.

The council acts as a watchdog for press standards and hears complaints against newspapers and journalists. Its members represent editors, working journalists, newspaper owners and parliament.