New Delhi, May 31: The Press Council of India has said that its findings have had a salutary effect in safeguarding the freedom of the press and in ensuring that this freedom is not regarded as a licence by newspapers. In its annual report for 1971 laid on the table of the Lok Sabha to-day, the Council said that by and large the press served the cause of the public with a few exceptions where a few papers had chosen to indulge in “blackmail, cheap sensationalism, scandal-mongering, scurrilous and communal writings or obscene publications.” Such journals, it said, did not generally command a large circulation. The Council was doing all it could to restrain them from abusing their journalistic role and violating ethical standards. During the year under review, the Press Council considered 28 complaints. In respect of complaints upheld, five editors were censured and four warned while the Council expressed displeasure against one. In nine complaints the Council, apart from expressing its opinion about objectionable writings, refrained from taking further action because the editors concerned admitted impropriety.
