The media is up in arms against the Supreme Court decision not to
interfere in the proceedings of a defamation case against TimesNow by former
Justice P.B. Sawant. The ruling requires TimesNow to deposit an amount of
20crores and a bank guarantee of 80crores with the Bombay High Court to hear an
appeal against a lower court’s order in Pune which awarded the 100crore
defamation to Justice Sawant.
Lately, the media has been under fire from various quarters,
particularly the new PCI chairman Justice Katju. He is in favour of newer and
stronger regular regulations, including punitive measures for infringements by
the media. In the present case TimesNow argues that showing the picture of
Justice Sawant in the report of a scam was a genuine, unintentional mistake
without malice. All other media organisations like Editors’ Guild, BEA, NBA and
others have criticised the SC ruling. Oh well, I’m not surprised even
politicians like Abhishek Singhvi, Arun Jaitley and Ravishankar Prasad have
also joined the chorus. In a few days this might even become a human rights
issue and the NHRC might also make a statement. Wait, who knows even the UN and
UNSC come out in support of our media since the eminent Lord Meghnad Desai
seems to have said the “court order was tantamount to an intimidating attack on
the freedom of the press”. An attack? On freedom of the Press? The SC simply
ruled it won’t intervene.
There has been a trend lately to rush to the SC with SLPs to either
stay or quash proceedings in lower courts. Sanjeev Bhatt’s is another case
where the SC has declined to quash proceedings against him. There is a
consistency now in SC rulings which appears not so keen in interfering with
lower courts except in stray cases. That is the message that the media should
have drawn instead of protesting the SC ruling so severely. After all, the
Bombay HC still hearing the TimesNow appeal and if their order is unfavourable
then going to the SC remains an option. As for 100 crores, does it seem
excessive? Well, on the face of it for 15 seconds of infamy it does seem
excessive. So let’s look at another case. The “Rahul Gandhi-Sukanya case – Amazing media silence” is an
older post on this blog that still remains on top. So what happened in that
case?
Indian Express (March 8): A former MLA of the Samajwadi Party, Kishor Samrite, filed a petition
in UP against Rahul Gandhi’s alleged illegal detention of a woman named
Sukanya. “The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court…slapped a penalty of Rs
50 lakh on…. who had filed a habeas corpus petition, alleging that Rahul Gandhi
had raped a girl from Amethi and was keeping her and her parents in illegal
detention since 2007. While dismissing the petition of Kishor Samrite, the
court also ordered CBI to register a case against him.
Mind you, when the case was filed it was just a few stray newspapers
that reported it. When the HC dismissed the case and ordered the penalty of 50
lakhs it was all over the place and the news channels carried the report over
and over again. No one really asked the question if 50 lakhs was fair and
justified. For one, the petitioner went to a court of law and statements in
courts cannot be considered defamation. So Samrite files a petition in the
SC which stays the penalty. And who rushes to the SC to get into the case? The
CBI! Oh yeah, the CBI which is usually reluctant to investigate certain scams
and politicians showed unusual enthusiasm to be a party to the case in SC. Here’s
what ET (August 26) reported:
CBI rushes to SC to becomeparty in case against Rahul: In an unusual move, the Central Bureau of
Investigation has rushed to the Supreme Court wanting to be a party in an
appeal filed by Kishore Samrite against whom a probe was ordered by the
Allahabad high court for levelling false charges against Congress general
secretary and MP Rahul Gandhi. The HC had asked for the CBI probe against
Samrite on March 7. The CBI had lodged a case under Indian Penal Code Sections
— 120b (criminal conspiracy), 181 (false statement on oath), 211 (false charges
to cause injury ) and 499-500 (defamation). The HC had imposed a fine of Rs 50
lakh on Samrite.
Look at the all the penal codes under which CBI wants to prosecute
Samrite. His motivation for the case against Rahul Gandhi may be suspect but
not one newspaper or news channel, I repeat NOT ONE, ever questioned whether
the 50 lakh penalty was justified. Well, obviously that is not an attack on
freedom of speech for media. After all, it concerns the first family. Mind you, not just that, not one single media
outlet even questioned why the CBI was so enthusiastic to be a party in the
appeal by Samrite. Not one!
Recently Sudheendra Kulkarni and
few BJP MLAs and others were arrested and jailed for their involvement in the
Cash4Votes scam. This time, it’s the Delhi Police who were acting on SC orders
to investigate the scam. These were the ‘whistleblowers’ in the scam and their
arrest was shocking to most people. Once again, they were bailed out by the
High Court which observed that none of them seemed to have taken any bribes and
there appears to be no prima-face against them. Yet, apart from
sensationalising their arrests not one media outlet questioned the conduct of
Delhi Police and the validity of their actions. How is it that ordinary people
are able to see through the acts of DP and yet the wise ones in the media are
not. It’s an extraordinary event where the guilty are roaming free and
apparently innocent ones were being prosecuted. Did the media stand up for
their freedom? Not one! Not one media retailer even asked if Kulkarni and
others were actually being “framed” in the whole case. Alright, never mind!
What about frequently calling Narendra Modi a ‘mass muderer’. Does the
media have any evidence? I suppose that is not defamation. Should he have
desired, NaMo could have sued Vir Sanghvi, Rajdeep Sardesai and others for a 100 crores too. How
do they shamlessly carry on such a campaign and yet claim defence for
themselves? How do they allow a rogue cop to call NaMo a ‘Common Criminal’ on
their news channels and yet not black out that comment. Instead, the media played out that comment over and over again. That is willful defamation many times over. Well, I guess it’s fair
game when it comes to others. Did the media plug these horrible utterances?
Roll back to another case, again by none other than the CBI. This was
against former Home Minister of Gujarat, Amit Shah. I now don’t even remember
how many charges were packed against Shah. Involvement in extortion,
Sohrabuddin case, the list might go on. When the news broke, the news channels
were up shouting and hollering how the ‘right-hand man’ and ‘aide’ of Narendra
Modi was screwed. They clearly implied that because Shah was charged and
arrested it was an indictment of Modi and there were those who even demanded
Modi’s resignation. Again, not one, I repeat not one, media retailer even
bothered to ask if the CBI’s case had any merits or what was the basis on which
the charges and arrest were made. The CBI not only opposed bail but even sought
Amit Shah to be kept out of the state of Gujarat. This is a plumbing job! The media simply went overboard in using
the case to hurl further accusations at the Narendra Modi govt. Defamation,
Slander, Libel anybody? The order by the Supreme Court in this particular is
not only shocking but exposes the outrageous act of the CBI. Here’s what the TOI (November 18) reported on
the SC order:
The bench indicated its agreement with Jethmalani's (Amit Shah’s
lawyer) submissions and told additional solicitor general Vivek Tankha, who
appeared for CBI, that "the complaints appears to be absolute trash". "Mr Tankha, you (the CBI) are supposed
to be the finest investigating agency. You have to respond to all these lapses
and deficiencies. The insinuations (against Shah) were wholly unwarranted and
totally unfair," the bench said.
Apart from some minor reporting of the SC order and some in the scrolls
at the bottom of the TV screen most news outlets buried the item. They were
happy to have found the sensational allegations of Vinod Kambli about
match-fixing pretty handy.
TimesNow frequently claims to base their reports on secret documents of
IB, Home Ministry that they somehow come to access. Other news channels also
often claim to possess secret letters and documents of the govt. in their
reporting. Yet, not one newspaper or newschannel has ever reported on Sonia
Gandhi’s reported illness, her surgery or her the state of her health. Why? No
leaks or are the media plumbers doing a good job of plugging it all. But they
find enough leaks to do hit jobs on detractors of the govt. Not even the CAG is
spared. The 100 crore defamation award is still in the appeal court. There is
no denying the severity of the order but is there any sympathy lost for the
news channel? The only thing hurt seems to be the media’s collective vanity.
