The court was hearing the suit filed by 38 production houses and associations against news channels for allegedly defaming the Hindi film industry.
Delhi high court terms news channels' reportage of film industry disheartening, demoralizing
Mumbai - 10 Nov 2020 19:00 IST
Our Correspondent
The Delhi High Court has asked the news channels not to run defamatory content against the Hindi film industry or its members and emphasized on the importance of fair and neutral reportage.
Justice Rajiv Shakdher was hearing the suit filed by 38 Hindi film production houses and associations against news channels such as Republic and Times Now for allegedly indulging in defamatory reportage against the film industry. During the hearing, justice Shakdher said that these days, people were “very scared of the fourth estate.”
Stating that the channels weren’t adhering to the programme code, he said that they need to tone things down.
“If you (news channels) do not follow self-regulation, what is to be done in a matter like this? You are prejudging issues. It is less news and more opinion. It is disheartening and demoralizing. I mean it demoralizes everyone. Today it is not hurting us (judiciary). Suppose it is your fraternity tomorrow. Surely, you can investigate but it has to be fair reportage,” said the bench.
Justice Shakdher said channels should refrain from going overboard while reporting on celebrities. “Surely, these are people are public personalities, so the element of privacy to an extent gets diluted but please see what happened when the media chased someone like (Princess) Diana. You cannot go on like this. Courts are the last ones who want to interfere but what is happening here is that you do not want to follow the code,” said the judge.
The judge also spoke about vitriolic debates on news shows, which have been popular since last decade. “Now I am hearing participants in debates using cuss words because they get so excited. If you keep egging them on, that is what happens,” he said.
The judge expressed nostalgia for the days when there was only one channel in the country — Doordarshan. “We used to find Doordarshan very stale. I wish Doordarshan comes back. They had some lovely broadcasters then,” he said.
