The Indian Journalists Union's (IJU) two-day 9th Plenary, hosted by the Punjab and Chandigarh Journalists Union (PCJU) was held at Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar on 27-28 October, 2018, with over 270 delegates from 16 States attending. The plenary discussed the burning issues affecting the fourth estate of democracy. It covered a range of issues and challenges concerning the safety of journalists and freedom of the media, a new wage board for journalists, Media Council, Committees to look into sexual harassment of women journalists at workplace, with the participants expressing apprehension over the rise of intolerance and atrocities against journalists across India.

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Until Independence in 1947, an overwhelming majority of the country's journalist community was an active participant in the freedom struggle and suffered the same fate as the other freedom-fighters. After Independence, however, the anti-Establishment traditions of the community compelled it to tread a path different from that of the ruling politicians. The contradictions that had developed between the two since the formation of elected provincial governments in 1937 began to sharpen further and journalists found that the time had come to form a trade union organisation of their own.

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