Need for Anti Media Trial Law

If you have been following news and updates on Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case, you must have noticed that Rhea Chakraborty is perceived to the prime suspect. But if you try to think what all hard evidences are against her, you would realize that there are virtually no evidence linking her directly to Sushant’s death! But why have we almost concluded that she is the “culprit” or “prime suspect”. It is because of the FIR filed by Sushant’s father where he suspected Rhea of being responsible for Sushant’s death; but it is also because of the manner in which media and especially TV News Media has been portraying her. It can be said that almost all TV channels have already solved the Sushant’s death case and also found the guilty person: Rhea Chakraborty. It is a textbook case of “Media Trial”.

Press Council of India (PCI) is a statuary regulatory body responsible to act as a watchdog and maintain adherence of press and media outlets in the spirits of Press Council Act. A few days ago, it had sent out a note to all media outlets against any “media trial”. You can read about it here: [Reference].

Taking strong objection to the coverage of the Sushant Singh Rajput case by many media outlets, the Press Council of India on Friday said the media should adhere to the norms of journalistic conduct in covering cases under investigation and is advised not to carry out its own "parallel trial". The media should not narrate the story in a manner so as to induce the general public to believe in the complicity of the person indicted, the Press Council of India (PCI) said in its advisory.

But, TV News Channels did not pay any heed to the warning and carried on with the same kind of news handling. There are two reasons behind this:

1. The PCI has no power to enforce or impose any penalty on either the individual journalists or the publications [Reference] 
2. It is believed that Electronic Media, TV News channels and social media do not come under the purview of PCI. [Reference]

It can be easily understood that the government needs to empower PCI so that it can effectively handle situations like the current case where Rhea Chakraborty’s media trial is the ongoing norm. At the same time, the vilification of Rhea Chakraborty strongly demands for an “anti- Media Trial” law.

The “Anti Media-Trial Law” which I am proposing should allow PCI or any other stationary regulatory body to effectively enforce the spirits of honest journalism. At the time where “Fake News” is widely spread and even the President of United States Donald Trump has been campaigning against it, India can show the way to the world by making such a law. Such a law should not be too harsh and should have enough checks and balances in place to avoid its misuse, because journalistic freedom and freedom of Press are very important and our first priority. 

I request our government to think about this proposal and bring a legislature to stop the unjust and vilifying episodes of “Media trials” in our country.

- Rahul Tiwary