Katju to Karnataka Assembly Speaker: Drop proceedings against mediamen

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Defending journalists who reported the porn-gate scandal, Press Council chairman Justice Markandey Katju on Monday wrote to the Karnataka Assembly Speaker urging him that proceedings initiated against media persons be dropped.

"Some MLAs of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly were filmed watching porn in the Assembly. Instead of commending the mediapersons for their professionalism, proceedings have been started against them," he said.

In his letter to Speaker K.G. Bopaiah, he requested him to reconsider his decision and withdraw the proceedings against mediapersons, and instead "take strong action against the MLAs who have brought disgrace to the House".

Katju said that he felt that such proceedings against mediapersons jeopardise the freedom of the media guaranteed as a fundamental right by the Constitution of India, and seek to create an impression that it is the media which has brought the House into disrepute rather than the MLAs involved.

He said the Inquiry Committee set up by the Karnataka Assembly in the matter should seek details of this 'sordid affair,' though from the questions they had asked it seemed they were treating journalists like those accused in an offence.

"In my respectful opinion the inquiry committee can certainly ask mediapersons concerned questions to ascertain correct facts about this sordid affair. But from what I could gather, the question being asked give the impression that the mediapersons are being treated as an accused of some offence, and are being grilled accordingly," Katju noted.

He said as people are the masters and the legislators only their representatives, the public has the right to be informed of the activities of the legislators.

"And the media is an agency of the people to give them this information. Hence I do not see what wrong the media has done by telecasting the watching of porn by the MLAs in the House.''

"To my mind the media were only doing their duty to the people of informing them of the shameful manner in which some of their representatives were behaving," Katju said.

He said all proceedings in a Assembly must be freely telecast and reported so that the people, who are the supreme authority in a democracy, know how their representatives are behaving.

"There may, of course, be exceptional situations where this cannot be done. For example, in the Second World War many secret sessions of the House of Commons were held so that Nazi spies may not know the views of the British political leaders.''

"But such secrecy can only be in exceptional situations. I fail to see what was the exceptional situation in Karnataka which could justify prohibiting mediapersons to report events in the House," Katju said.

He also quoted the US Supreme Court judgement in Penatagon Papers case which said, "only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell."

"In my view far from deserving condemnation for their courageous reporting, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other newspapers deserve to be commended for serving the purpose which the Founding Father saw so clearly. In revealing the workings of the government which led to the Vietnam War the newspapers nobly did precisely that which the founders hoped and trusted they would do," he said quoting the judgement.