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Critica L Analysis On The Law Commission'S Report On Media

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BHAVYANSHI DARIYA
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29 views

Critica L Analysis On The Law Commission'S Report On Media

Uploaded by

BHAVYANSHI DARIYA
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CRITICAL ANALYSIS ON THE LAW COMMISSION'S REPORT ON

MEDIA
Freedom of speech and expression is an imperative right in every democracy.
Media also enjoys the same right and in a broad perspective they exercise the same
for the betterment of the society. In a competitive environment, the participants in
the media industry try their level best to attract more audience and readers. They
go beyond mere facts statements and use many innovative techniques.
Sensationalizing news is not a new phenomenon but assuming themselves in the
role of police and judges by investigation, collecting an evidence and making a
decision is a major concern. When a crime is committed it is taken as something
affecting the society and hence state comes immediately as the complainant and
proceeds with the matter.
The criminal justice system followed in India is based on the theory that an
accused is entitled to fair trial and is innocent until proven guilty beyond any
reasonable doubt. But the media on an account of exclusive coverage media goes a
long way to cover and publish interviews of witnesses, victim’s relatives,
comments of the members of legal fraternity, which may cause prejudice to the
trial proceedings in the particular judicial mind. In fact this affects the perception
of the public at large because media reaches out the mass promptly. In the last few
decades we have witnessed rapid growth of media influence in the process of
access to justice in plethora of cases relating to corruption, rape, sexual
harassment, murder etc. Media activism imposes an indirect pressure on the
adjudicating authorities to deliver justice to the victims which may interfere with
the trial proceedings and may cause prejudice to the accused and a chance of
proving his innocence. The system may have many flaws, the media should help to
deal with the flaws in system but instead of that they started playing the role of
investigator and finding the guilt of the persons, which may lead to confusion in
the mind of people at large and there is always a risk of manipulation and innocent
people may be implicated. The situation raises few important legal issues first is
accused person’s right to get fair trial another facet of the problem is victim’s right.
Media has played the role of conducting checks on functioning of all organs of the
government and has yet managed to emerge as a fora for public voice and opinion.
Media trial during investigation stage, contempt of court, irresponsible reporting
and hype on the sub judice matters and the constant pressure to stay competitive in
the market has now led to overstepping of boundaries by the media.
Under the hood of “Media Trial”, where the media itself conducts a separate
investigation, builds public opinion against the accused even before the court takes
cognizance of the case, by this way it prejudices the public and the judges and as a
result the accused, that should be assumed innocent, is presumed as a criminal. The
role of media in the administration of justice is very important, the recent trends in
investigative journalism and high competition among newspapers and channels to
impress the common man through their reports poses serious threats to due
administration of justice. The trend of investigative journalism leads to give over
importance to crimes, criminal activities, trials, development of cases in courts,
acquittal or conviction of the accused, these things affect the fair trial. The trial by
media influence the witness also, the witness may modify their depositions in tune
with media reports and public opinion created by the media. The repeated reports
in media may leave witness in a state of confusion and they may be deviated from
what they have seen or heard.
The hype generated by 24/7 media coverage of an event sometimes tends to distort
and recreate the crime scene ensuing viewers including judges to visualize it and
get influenced by the same. The criminal justice system considers the accused
innocent until proven guilty. The concept of fair trial which is again an important
principle of justice system, gets undervalued due to media trial. This practice of
vibrant media has been opposed by various groups as being against the interest of
the accused and the principle of criminal justice system, the issue is in debate for a
long time without a concrete solution as yet. Though the 17th law commission of
India in its 200th report came across this problem, no serious step has been taken
in this regard except with a recommendation to treat sub judice period from the
time of arrest instead of filing of the charge sheet. The step is too inadequate to
deal with the administration of justice under the head of media trial. Thus a
separate law is required in India to control media from unduly interfering with the
administration of justice under the pretext of media trial.

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