Press Council of India Reconstituted With 13 New Journalist Members

The Central Government has selected 13 members for the Press Council of India (PCI) with six being working journalists under editors category and seven being working journalists other than editors. The selection of members has been done according to the Press Council Act, 1978 and reconstitution of the 15th term of the PCI. Head of the PCI is Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai (Retd.), Supreme Court judge, who was nominated as the Chairperson for three-year tenure in April 2026.

Who Are the 13 New Members?

The following members have been nominated by the government under the category of working journalists:

Working Journalists – Editors Category

Members are the following,

• Pradeep Kumar Jain
• Sayed Raza Husain Rizvi
• Ankur Dua
• Aparna Shukla
• Raj Parwana/Narender Singh
• Vinod Bajpai

Working Journalists – Other Than Editors

The following are seven nominated members:

• Vinod Kohli
• Geetartha Pathak
• Prajnananda Chaudhuri
• Kingshuk Pramanik
• C K Nayak
• Prasanna Kumar Mohanty
• Bijoy Kakchingtabam

The members have been selected as per Section 5(3)(a) of the Press Council Act, 1978 that includes 13 working-journalist members out of which six are editors and seven others.

Composition of the Press Council of India

The Press Council of India has a membership of one Chairperson and 28 other members according to the Press Council Act, 1978.

The statutory membership includes,

Category	Number
Working journalists	13
Newspaper owners/managers	6
Manager of news agencies	1
Representatives of Parliament	5
Education, law, literature and culture	3
Total members	28
Chairperson	1

In the total number of 13 working journalists, there are six editors and seven other working journalists except editors. In the six newspaper-owner representatives, there are two representatives each for big, medium and small newspapers.

The three representatives for specialized fields are appointed by the UGC, BCI and Sahitya Akademi in respect of education and science, law and literature and culture.

Functions of the Press Council of India

Press Council of India (PCI) is a statutory, autonomous and quasi-judicial body created by the Press Council Act of 1978. Its primary aims include protection of press freedom and preservation and improvement of standards of the newspapers and news agencies of India.

PCI formulates Norms of Journalistic Conduct and can initiate cases in suo motu manner as well as through complaints pertaining to content in print media that does not conform to these norms.

Functions include,

• Assisting newspapers and news agencies to maintain their independence.
• Improvement and preservation of standards.
• Formulation of Norms of Journalistic Conduct.
• Assessing the trends that might curtail the dissemination of news.
• Resolving complaints relating to the press.
• Advice on issues related to press freedom and operation.

Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai: Chairperson of PCI

Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai is the Chairperson of the Press Council of India.

She was a retired Judge of Supreme Court of India and was appointed as the Chairperson of the PCI.

This appointment was announced in the notification dated 24 April 2026 issued by the Central Government for a term of three years starting from the date of the notification in the Official Gazette.