Relevance: GS-3: Role of media and social networking sites in internal security challenges

Key Phrases: Lack of Media Accountability, Media Trials, Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties, Guidelines to Regulate Media Briefings, Public Stripping of the Rights, Politically Motivated Narratives, Lack of Dedicated Media Cells

Why in News?

• Recently, the Chief Justice of India objected to the lack of media accountability in the media’s coverage of legal issues.

Key Highlights:

• In a recent incident, the Delhi police informed the media about the outcome of AltNews’ co-founder Mohammed Zubair’s bail hearing even before the judicial order was pronounced in open court.
• It is of a great concern that a considerable portion of its news coverage was disclosed by the police officer as a fact without waiting for the judicial order.
• Thus, in the case, Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties asked the Supreme Court to issue guidelines to regulate media briefings by the police to ensure fair trial.
• This has left the judiciary with no choice but to deliberate on binding directives to the police.

What are the related issues concerned with the media trial?

1. The police as the source:
   1. Unregulated divulgence of case details:
      • Police is a crucial source of information for the media and communication between the two institutions and is often a starting point of the troubles of media trials.
      • Disproportionate reliance of the media on the information provided by police results in a public stripping of the rights that typically accompany a fair trial.
   2. Politically motivated narratives:
      • Police narratives are sometimes designed to achieve political goals, and the media’s ready acceptance of these narratives does little to prevent their insidious effects.
      • The police, when independent from political and corporate influence, are more concerned with demonstrating dynamism and efficiency, rather than the protection of civil liberties.
   3. Lack of dedicated media cells:
      • Most police departments do not have dedicated media cells, making officials of all levels authoritative sources of information and blurring the boundaries between an official and informal police account of events.
      • As a result, the evidence-based narrative of criminal cases presented by the police to a court varies significantly from the account provided to the news media, much to the detriment of the persons involved in the case, and the justice system as a whole.
2. Unregulated Media:
   1. Investigation limited to trial stages:
      • During investigation in criminal cases that attract the most sensationalist media coverage, media attention is often drawn towards investigation and early trial stages.
      • However, there is a notable disconnect of the media from the eventual outcomes of trial that follow several months or even years after an arrest.
   2. Political and Executive interference:
      • Given the media’s ability to shape political opinion, law enforcement agencies are sometimes under pressure to selectively reveal certain facts of the investigation or to mischaracterise incidents as communal or systemic.
      • For example, the Bhima Koregaon violence (2018) was marked by a slew of motivated arrests of popular dissenters critical of the Government.
   3. Changing nature of newsroom:
      • The negligence can be attributed to the changing nature of the newsroom responding to deadlines externally set by competing social media accounts that now qualify as news.
   4. Lack of contextualisation of information:
      • Reporters absolve themselves of their duty to contextualise information revealed by the police.
      • Media ethics extend beyond the verification of facts.
      • Apart from making sure that police narratives are accurate before making them public, reporters have the duty of translating the significance of police versions in a criminal trial. However, it is rarely done by them.
      • For example, many reports mention “arrest” without any information about whether such arrests are conducted in the course of investigation or after filing of a charge sheet.
3. Government Regulations:
   1. Non-uniform Regulation:
      • Government regulation is not uniform for print and television media and enforcement of these regulations is slow where it occurs.
      • Government regulation of the media, in any case, is problematic and likely to increase politicisation of the press.
   2. Weak Self-regulation:
      • Self-regulation set-ups such as the National Broadcasting Standards Authority and Indian Broadcasting Foundation are membership-based and easily avoided by simply withdrawing from the group.
      • This weak regulatory environment effectively leaves reporting norms to the conscience of reporters and their editors.

What are the implications of unfair media trials?

• Violation of human rights: Unfair media trials and reporting of this nature violate the presumption of innocence and the right to dignity and the privacy of suspects, the accused, victims, witnesses, and persons closely related to them.
• Exposure to vulnerabilities: They often face social ostracisation and difficulties in retaining employment, making them vulnerable to crime and exploitation.
• Lack of trust in the Judiciary and the system: This has significant implications for citizens and contributes considerably to the public apprehension and mistrust in the system.

Court directives and guidelines:

• Courts have directed law enforcement authorities in various cases not to reveal details of their investigations, especially the personal details of the accused before the trial is complete. For example, in Romila Thapar vs Union of India, (2018) case.
• Despite this, statutory restrictions on the police to maintain confidentiality are rare, with Kerala being one of the few States to have disallowed photographs of persons in custody within its Police Act.
• Most other States have issued different media policy guidelines with weak enforcement mechanisms through administrative circulars whose contents remain unknown to the public.
• The Ministry of Home Affairs issued an office memorandum outlining a media policy over a decade ago, but this is of limited value given that ‘Police’ is an entry in the State List and thus falls primarily within the jurisdiction of State governments.

Way Forward:

• A stronger regulation of communication channels between law enforcement and the media is needed.
• It is now in the immediate interest of the media and the general interest of the free press with an increasing call for media regulation, that media institutions look inward to find an answer to what is essentially an ethical crisis.
• The media’s immense power to shape narratives regarding public conceptions of justice makes it a close associate of the justice system, bringing with it a responsibility to uphold the basic principles of our justice system.
• The media should feel subject to the obligation to do its part in aiding mechanisms that aim to preserve these principles.
• A structured and well-designed media policy with training and enforcement mechanisms is the need of the hour for the police.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. What do you understand about the media trials? Discuss the various issues associated with the media trials and suggest the way forward in order to ensure the basic principles of our justice delivery system. (250 words).