Tanvi Sinha
A Supreme Court bench headed by CJI Bobde issued a notice regarding the plea filed by Filmmaker Nilesh Navalakha that sought a governing body to regulate fake news in the media.
This came only a week after a man who had engaged in the Farmer’s protests filed a defamation complaint in a Chandigarh District Court against the high-rated TRP news channels such as Zee News and Republic TV on account of them calling the farmers “Khalistanis” and anti-Nationalist.
The plea, filed by the petitioner through Advocates Rajesh Inamdar, Shashwat Anand and Amit Pai states, states to find a balance between the freedom of speech and press and intersecting it with preserving peace and harmony in the nation.
The petitioner claimed that the presence of the Media Tribunal would help regulate the hate speech, media trials, propaganda news, paid news that has apparently become the order of the day according to the petitioner.
This came alongside the news of Republic TV news managing director, editor and an anchor, allegedly paying 12,000 dollars and 40 lakh rupees to fix TRPs.
The plea raised questions of whether broadcasters and members of electronic media should be allowed to enjoy unfettered freedom than regular citizens and whether regulation of the news channels would amount to deterring the rights under freedom of press.
It also asked to consider if Article 21 requires citizens to have a right to free fair and proportionate media reporting and if a judiciary mechanism was required to regulate the same.
