Freedom Of Press And Contempt Of Court

31st August, 2023 - 9:48 am Categories: Media & Entertainment Law 0 Comments

Introduction

Media has a mass influence over the public which at times hinders rational thinking. Oftentimes, decisions of the judiciary are vastly publicized and the media often broadcasts every nook and cranny of the cases. Fair statements with the intention of spreading awareness are not a threat to the sanctity of the judiciary but often such hearings turn into a means of entertainment for the public. Many times the public revolts against the decisions rendered by the judiciary merely because of the perspective showcased by the media.

Sometimes, even the judges get subconsciously influenced by media with respect to decision making which hampers the judicial process. This is why the independence given to the press to freely express their opinions should be backed by reasonable restrictions.

Thus, Freedom of Press is a right that needs to exercised with certain reasonable restrictions. This can be understood from Article 19 of the Constitution of India which encompasses Right to Freedom of Press.

Freedom Of Press

Freedom of press essentially means the independence of media in freely opining on various happenings around the globe and publishing the same. The press takes into consideration the views of the public to present a modified narrative favouring either the majority opinion or the minority opinion which often moulds the views of those viewers who earlier did not have an opinion on the issue or who were dissenting it.

Freedom of press is a right that is not explicitly mentioned in the statutes. It can be equated with the Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression as given under Article 19 1(a) of the Constitution of India. Article 19 (1) (a) grants freedom to the citizens of India to exercise free speech and expression but reasonable restrictions are imposed on this right.

The word ‘reasonable’ in terms of restrictions was introduced by the 1^stAmendment Act, 1951. It is crucial for the restrictions to be reasonable such that they they lead to the welfare of the people at large and not the individual upon whom such restriction is imposed.

Unlimited Restrictions And Unlimited Freedom

With respect to freedom of press if there are unreasonable restrictions, it might tantamount to censorship.However, unlimited freedom is equallya threat to public order.

The Apex Court in Prashant Bhushan’s case laid emphasis on the fact that even though, freedom of press is a quintessential aspect of democracy, this right cannot be limitlessly exercised at the stake of other institutions of democracy.Every individual has the freedom to have opinions both positive and negative about any decision of the judiciary and criticise them in a fair manner. However, if malice is attached to these opinions it would lead to an action of contempt against such individuals. The thoughts of an individual cannot be controlled but the expression of these thoughts needs to be within “constitutional limits”. the thinking process and words operating in the mind of one individual, but when it comes to expression, it has to be within the constitutional limits.

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Press is a tool instrumental in maintaining public welfare. The State has a legitimate interest in putting a restraint on free speech. The restraints are necessary to be put only to the extent of harm caused to the dignity of a person, maintenance of public order and national security etc. The need to put restrictions must be felt by the State because it is affected by the large scale influence of press for instance media trials. The State in such scenarios would to suppress the voice of the press by means of censorship which denies the public of a reality check as is presented by media. What they avail is filtered information passed through the checks and criteria of acceptable publication by the State. This would defeat the sole foundation of a democracy. Hence, restrictions on press, if imposed by the State, should be in rare cases wherein the views expressed by the press negatively affect the functioning of judiciary in terms of lost of public trust and faith in it.

Effect On The Common Man

While giving due consideration to the broad aspects of freedom of press and contempt of our affecting the public at large or the judiciary as a whole, it must not be forgotten that the judicial cases are centered around an aggrieved petitioner at the end of the day. Their quest for justice should not be hampered due to delay caused by frivolous contempt proceedings concerning publications by media. At the grass root levels, the plea of an aggrieved is to be given utmost importance and redressed as soon as possible.

CONCLUSION

An action for contempt with respect to press publication is exercised arbitrarily by the courts as it is at the discretion of the court to entertain such proceedings or not. Sometimes cases pertaining to excessive freedom exercised by the press are brought under the contempt jurisdiction, but later the contemnors are released following an apology from their side and the contempt proceedings are disposed off. This leads to unnecessary wastage of judiciary’s time when instead justice could have been served to a needy. The provisions need to be reframed in order to bring about uniformity with respect to initiation of contempt proceedings against the press if need be.

Author: Sonakshi Pandey,  A Student at Symbiosis Law School, NOIDA, in case of any queries please contact/write back to us via email to chhavi@khuranaandkhurana.com or at Khurana & Khurana, Advocates and IP Attorney.

Refernces

1. N.SHUKLA’S CONSTITUTION OF INDIA 13^th Edition
2. Prashant Bhushan, In re (Contempt Matter), (2021) 3 SCC 160
3. C. Saxena (Dr) v. Hon’ble The Chief Justice of India, (1996) 5 SCC 216
4. Arundhati Roy, In Re, (2002) 3 SCC 343