Supreme Court says, “self-regulation mechanism has to be effective” for monitoring the news channels

The Supreme Court of India recently heard a plea by the News Broadcasters and Digital Association against the observations of the Bombay High Court regarding self-regulatory mechanism for media. While hearing the matter, a three-judge bench including Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice Manoj Misra, and Justice JB Pardiwala commented that the self-regulatory mechanism for monitoring the news channels required to be ‘more effective’. The bench said that “We are completely with you that we must be circumspect about regulation by the government because we don’t want to impose a pre-censorship or post-censorship on the media.” CJI said, “At the same time, the self-regulation mechanism has to be effective”. Along with this, Senior Advocate Arvind Datar appearing for the Association referred to the media coverage of Sushant Singh Rajput's death in 2020. Addressing to this, CJI said “Everybody went berserk presuming whether it’s a murder or suicide.” He added, “You preempt a criminal investigation by doing that.” CJI further added, “You say it is clear that barring a few instances, almost all TV channels maintain self-restraint in the telecast. I don’t know if you take a head count of the people in court, who will agree with what you say.” 

The Supreme Court told the News Broadcasters and Digital Association that a fine of one lakh rupees is not effective. It asked SA Datar, “If you are going to impose a fine of Rs. 1 lakh on the channels, is that effective?” Further asking that the association not considered to raise the fine amount for the last 15 years. In context with this, the CJI said that the fine should be more than the profits of the media organizations made from a particular show. Considering this, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre seeking their response in context with the plea. The notice mentioned, “We are of the considered view it would be necessary for this court to consider as to whether the steps which have already been taken for constituting a self-regulatory mechanism need to be strengthened both in terms of the ambit of the jurisdiction of mechanism as well as in terms of the final orders that may be passed.”