March 25,  2015: The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) and the Andhra Pradesh Newspaper Employees Federation hailed the Judgment of the Supreme Court quashing the draconian Section 66 A of the Information Technology Act

which was misused by several state government to stifle expression of dissent against the ruling establishments.

In a statement issued here on Wednesday, the Indian Journalists Union (lJU) President S N Sinha, Secretary-General Amar Devulapalli, Press Council of India Member K Amarnath and Andhra Pradesh Newspaper Employees Federation (APNEF) President Ambati Anjaneyulu alleged that several State Governments including the Government of West Bengal and Maharashtra misused the provision to jail Prof Ambikesh Mahapatra of Jadavpur University and Aseem Trivedi, a prominent cartoonist for exposing the follies of the ruling establishment.

The IJU urged on the Government of India to immediately create a common regulatory mechanism to adjudicate on the aberrations in media of all hues and types, print, electronic, web and social, by converting the present Press Council which is the self-regulatory body of the print media into Media Council.

"Until such a mechanism with representatives of media, civil society and parliamentarians, as is the case now in Press Council composition, is created, the ruling establishments will try to impose draconian laws to take away the right of freedom of expression and the citizens right to know under the guise of controlling irresponsible and hate mongering in the media.

"We strongly feel that the Supreme Court Judgment should act as a wakeup call and the working journalists along with the lovers offree expression should build a strong movement to force the government to come up with a combined mechanism to act as self-regulatory mechanism for all types of media," they said.

The IJU leaders urged the Press Council of India to take up the matter vigorously and build public opinion to convert it in to Media Council by holding workshops and seminars all over the country.