TV journos, websites not Pope sitting in pulpit: CJI
Slamming “irresponsible reporting”, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Thursday asked the electronic media and new websites not to feel like the “Pope sitting in the pulpit” and telecast or write anything that contains baseless insinuations.
Chief Justice Misra said that journalism has descended into a scenario where the media thinks they are “sitting on some pulpit” and can write anything they imagine about anyone. “That is not real journalism but irresponsible reporting. ( Television) journalists behave as if they have turned “Popes or guardians overnight. There are limits,” the Supreme Court said while hearing an appeal filed by a web portal against a Gujarat high court order rejecting relief in the criminal defamation complaint filed by Jay Shah, son of BJP president Amit Shah. The apex court told the trial court not to proceed with the trial till April 12.
The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the electronic media and websites not to feel like the “Pope sitting in the Pulpit” and telecast or write anything they imagine containing baseless insinuations.
A visibly upset Chief Justice Dipak Misra, heading a three- judge bench said journalism has descended into a scenario where the media thinks they are “sitting on some pulpit” and can write anything they imagine about anyone. That is not real journalism but irresponsible reporting. ( Television) Journalists behave as if they have turned “Popes or guardians overnight. There are limits.”
The bench, including Justices A. M. Kanwilkar and D. Y. Chandrachud, was hearing an appeal filed by a Web portal against a Gujarat high court order rejecting relief in the criminal defamation complaint filed by Jay Shah, son of BJP president Amit Shah. It asked the trial court not to proceed with the trial till April 12.
After hearing senior counsel Kapil Sibal and Raju Ramachandran for the portal and its journalists and senior counsel Neeraj Kishan Kaul for Jay Shah, the CJI said, “I don’t want to name any particular electronic media, but the way things have been vilified, it is not responsible journalism.”
The CJI observed, “The electronic media and websites require to be extremely careful. However, question of gagging the media does not come at all. I have myself rebuffed all attempts to gag the media, but we do expect the media, especially electronic media, to become more responsible. They cannot publish anything only because they have some websites.”
“It is not the culture of journalism to write anything and get away with it only because it is published on a website. Are they free to write anything? What they write sometimes is sheer contempt of court. You cannot reproduce anything that comes to your heart and mind. There has to be some basis. You cannot nurture, construct, construe, and create any-