A PIL on protecting freelance journalists during protest coverage has revived the question of who counts as a journalist and who gets to decide.

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• A Supreme Court Bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi heard a PIL seeking protection of freedom of expression for freelance journalists and content creators.
• The plea follows protests in which riot police removed journalists from the site during the second round of protests on October 10.
• Only journalists holding Press Information Bureau or Directorate of Information and Publicity accreditation were allowed to cover the protests.
• Senior advocate Indira Jaising urged a national protocol so police do not obstruct any journalist carrying an employer-issued identity card.
• Solicitor General Tushar Mehta countered that anyone with a mobile phone could claim to be an independent journalist.
• Under the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, a working journalist is a person whose principal avocation is journalism and who is employed in a newspaper, electronic or digital media.
• That definition excludes managerial staff and does not neatly cover freelancers, camerapersons or technicians.
• PIB and DIP accreditation depends on thresholds such as circulation, subscribers, uplinking licences and unique visitors, leaving out smaller outlets.
• A proposed national media council, modelled on bodies like the Bar Council of India, would recognise all working journalists and could require journalism qualifications.
• The central challenge is balancing meaningful recognition of journalists against definitions that are either too restrictive or too loose.