The Kerala High Court recently dismissed a PIL petition instituted by a lawyer wherein he was seeking for constructing a set framework of guidelines to regulate print and electronic media.
Case of the Petitioner
The lawyer-petitioner in his petition draws the attention of the Court over the issue of peak in unsearched news, and the vilification of public and political institutions without verification of the facts.
He was seeking from the Court to frame a set of guidelines in order to curb the circulation of unsearched news or such information which does not keep up the transparency and intact and ruins the right of the public to be informed with reliable and verified information. The petitioner specifically mentions the Kerala gold smuggling case hyped up in Malayalam media.
Petitioner stressed upon the peril to democracy if such fake information is circulated out in the public domain without verification under the garb of Journalism, as Journalism being one of the pillars of democracy is not transparent and aims to spread misinformation, and then the democracy of such a nation is at a quite vulnerable position.
Reasoning of the Court
After a detailed discussion with respect to the Press right, guaranteed via freedom of speech and expression, a Bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly noted that it is not within the realm of the Court to set a mechanism that verifies what is broadcasted and published.
While pronouncing the same the High Court referred to a Supreme Court’s ruling in Sahara India Real Estate Corporation v. SEBI, where the Bench had refrained from executing any guideline for a prior curb to media reportage.
The High Court in the instant case thus, pointed out that the courts cannot set a straight jacket formula to curb reportage on prior basis, however can exercise the same on a case to case basis. The Court further stated that the Judges should not decide a case entirely on the basis media report; however if it is a basis for consideration then the Court may take a contrary approach.
Thus framing regular guidelines would curb the freedom of speech and expression, the Bench ruled.
Further, the Bench also stressed upon the Madras High Court’s observations with respect to self regulation of the media. The Court noted,
“Under self regulation the media voluntarily commits to uphold a code of ethics that it, itself drafts, thus providing a mechanism to which the public can complaint about perceived breaches of the court and an independent council adjudicating on the complaints and decides upon appropriate remedies in order to secure the credibility of its profession and trust of the public’’
For these reasons and after considering the petitioner’s lack of locus, as well as his failure to corroborate his allegations leads to dismissal of the petition.
Case details
Before: Kerala High Court
Case title: Halki K V v. State of Kerala
Bench: Hon’ble Mr. Justice Shaji P. Chaly.
Read Judgement@LatestLaws.com
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