Media Unions Slam Indian Finance Ministry For Limiting Press Access

) The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Indian affiliate on Thursday criticized the Indian Finance Ministry for restricting media access to ministerial office

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th July, 2019) The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Indian affiliate on Thursday criticized the Indian Finance Ministry for restricting media access to ministerial offices.

The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) said that banning journalists from the ministry's corridors and forcing them to wait outside the gate until they were called upon was an act of censorship.

"The IJU therefore has demanded that the Finance Ministry immediately takes back its order of imposing restrictions on movement of journalists by accepting that its order does amount to censorship," it said.

The IFJ sided with the Indian press union in condemning Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's decision to ban access to the ministry.

"We stand with IJU in condemning the decision taken by Indian government to ban access to the country's finance ministry. We demand the authorities to end the restriction and respect journalists' rights," it said.

Both organizations stressed that the public's right to access information was key to any democracy and that stopping journalists from gathering information amounted to an attack on the freedom of the press.