Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Court proceedings and journalists' that was published in Newsband

Court proceedings and journalists

Media should not be kept out from the court proceedings. If this happens people will lose faith in the judiciary. Justice should be open.

 Actually hearings in courts are open to all. But the courtrooms are small and there is space for few. That is the reason why the general public relies on journalists to provide an accurate account of proceedings on the court.

Unlike almost every other wing of government, the judicial process is open to the public. Bit the “gag orders” by the court on media reporting of two high-profile cases recently is a case of flouting the laws by the court.  Both are “high-profile cases”. They are of enormous public interest. The judge had prohibited the journalists from publishing the day-to-day proceedings. On what basis the court arrived at these conclusions?

Yes, there are examples of misreporting by the newspapers which is why sometimes the publishing of any proceedings of the case is prohibited till the judgment. The court can postpone reporting of the proceedings only as long as is necessary to ensure that trial takes place without interference. Otherwise the court cannot impose the gag on media reporting.

In the case related to Ujjain Mahakaleshwar temple, the Supreme Court orally directed journalists covering the case to not report the proceedings to prevent “misreporting”. It is necessary for the court too to respect Freedom of Speech. An acceptable balance between freedom of press and administration of justice is not always an easy task. But gag orders are destructive of both the freedom of press and administration of justice.

The public has the right to see how exactly justice is being done. Hence the journalists should be allowed to cover the proceedings in the court. Otherwise the public will lose confidence in the judiciary itself.