INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Union home ministry to prepare a comprehensive manual to guide the police on how to
A bench of CJI D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and Manoj Misra said there is a need for an SOP for media briefing as the
guidelines were framed 13 years ago and there has been an upsurge in reporting on criminal offences in print, electronic - social media
Media trials lead to deflection from the course of justice: SCThe age, gender of accused and nature of crime will weigh on the nature of
disclosure to be made...media trial leads to deflection from the course of justice
Bearing in mind these aspects we are of the view that the home ministry prepares a comprehensive manual on media briefings by police
investigation is entitled to a fair and unbiased investigation by the police
At the stage of trial, every accused is entitled to assumption of innocence and hence media reportage in a manner which implicates the
culpability of a person who is under investigation is liable to seriously impinge upon the reputation and personal dignity of the individual
investigation would ensure against speculation on crime reporting
Thus, there is a need to have a uniform policy which can be adopted for notifying nodal officers who would be available to share the stage
The guidelines must ensure that disclosure does not result in a media trial so as to allow prejudging of the accused
Media trials are liable to result in deflection of cause of justice by impacting upon the evidence which should be adduced and its
while the press cannot be restrained from reporting, the sources of information, which are often government entities, can be regulated
He cited the 2008 Aarushi Talwar murder case where multiple police officials gave different versions of the sensational crime to media.The
top court was hearing a petition about the modalities followed by the police while briefing the media about criminal cases under
