The Supreme Court has taken steps to lay down a code for Media reporting. This attempt at prior restraint on the media is a dangerous move with precedent from authoritarian polities. In a context where the judiciary has been lax in defending the media from attacks which seek to curb its freedom, such unilateral moves will not remedy bad reporting but rather make conditions worse for the media to play...

The private member’s Bill that Rahul Gandhi’s close aide and Congress MP Meenakshi Natarajan was scheduled to introduce in Parliament last week lays down a draconian set of rules clearly aimed to gag and threaten the media in the name of “protecting national interest”. Called the Print and Electronic Media Standards and Regulation Bill, 2012, it provides for a media regulatory authority — part selected by the I&B minister and three...

-The Telegraph The government today told a Constitution bench that the right to freedom of speech was for the “benefit” of the public, not the media, as it backed the Supreme Court’s attempt to lay down norms for reporting judicial proceedings. “Freedom of speech is not for the benefit of the press but for the benefit of the public,” additional solicitor-general Indira Jaisingh said, marking a shift from the cautious stand the...

The list of those complaining about trial by media is growing by the day: among the latest additions is Dara Singh, convicted of the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons. A Supreme Court Constitution bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, S.H. Kapadia, is mulling guidelines for the media to report sub-judice matters. Dara has filed an application claiming that intense media pressure had prevented the...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would attempt to strike a balance between the right to dignity, reputation and fair trial of the accused with press freedom before laying down principles outlining the contours of Article 19(1)(a) of Constitution guaranteeing right to free speech and expression. A five-judge constitution bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices D K Jain, S S Nijjar, R P Desai and J S...