Bombay:
The Union government told the Bombay High Court on Wednesday that it does not support media trials, but statutory and self-regulatory guidelines for print and electronic media already exist.
He also said that the Supreme Court had accepted the role of the National Association of Broadcasters, a private body, as the regulator of television news channels, and the Supreme Court also held that media freedom should not be hindered.
The High Court had earlier asked whether there was a statutory mechanism to regulate content broadcast by electronic media.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Judge G S Kulkarni heard from a PIL group calling for the media, especially news channels, to be asked to be held back in their reporting on the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
The petitioners, who included former senior police officers, said news channels were conducting a media trial on the case on the suspicion of the defendant’s guilt.
Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, who appeared for the Union government on Wednesday, said that while statutory guidelines already exist for TV news content, it may be necessary to see if anything is missing from those. guidelines.
“We are not seeking to justify the media trial. All courts have condemned the media trial. We accept this position,” said ASG Singh.
“There is a statutory framework that covers electronic media. News broadcasters also have self-regulatory guidelines … In addition, the CS was made aware of the NBA model that was accepted. They agreed to the media. should not be interfered with, ”Mr. Singh told me.
He also referred to the judgment of the SC in the Sahara case where he considered that it was a fundamental paradigm of freedom of expression that the media should be free from any government control in matters of “content” and that the censorship and freedom of expression are “sworn enemies”. .
HC will continue to hear the government’s arguments in this matter on Friday.
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
