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Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008
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Court to lay down norms for coverage of criminal cases

J. Venkatesan

New Delhi: Expressing serious concern over media coverage of the Aarushi Talwar murder case, the Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre with a view to laying down norms and guidelines for the print and electronic media in covering criminal cases in which investigation is pending.

Acting on a public interest litigation petition, a Bench also issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government, the Press Council of India, The Times of India, Hindustan Times, NDTV, Aaj Tak and CNN-IBN, seeking their response.

The matter has been posted to September 23.

The Bench, consisting of Justices Altamas Kabir and Markandey Katju, asked Additional Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam to render assistance in this case.

Order to continue

Its July 22 interim order would continue. That day, the Bench said: “Both the press and the electronic media should exercise caution in publishing any news regarding the case in question, which may have the effect of prejudicing defence of the accused or damaging the reputation of any person connected with the case.”

Advocate-petitioner Surat Singh alleged that the media had maligned the sacred father-daughter relations, irresponsibly reporting the murder and indulging in character assassination of the teenager.

During Monday’s hearing, counsel told the Bench that the court’s earlier order had a good effect as the media were exercising restraint in reporting the Aarushi murder case.

Justice Kabir told counsel: “Nobody is trying to gag the media. They must play a responsible role. By investigation, the media must not do anything which will prejudice either the prosecution or the accused. Sometimes the entire focus is lost. A person is found guilty even before the trial takes place. See what happened in this [Aarushi] case. Till today what is the evidence against anyone?”

Justice Katju said: “We will lay down guidelines on media coverage. We are not concerned about media criticising us. Let media say anything about us, we are not perturbed. Our shoulders are broad enough and we will ignore it [the criticism]. We are for media freedom. What we are saying is there is no absolute freedom. See what happened to Dr. Talwar [Aarushi’s father], his reputation is tarnished.”

(Initially, he was considered a suspect and arrested on May 23. Later he was freed on bail as the Central Bureau of Investigation said it could not find anything to suggest his involvement in the murder of his daughter and domestic help at Noida.)

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