NEW DELHI: LAYING emphasis on the fact that fake news can rock the bedrock of democracy, Supreme Court judge Justice BV Nagarathna called for a regulatory mechanism for the “new age of journalism” that has been popularised after the onset of digital media.
Speaking at the Seema Nazareth Award event, organised by The Business Standard on the topic ‘A free and balanced press: sentinel of democracy’, she said “ineffectiveness of regulating electronic media” has given rise to the necessity of shunning prejudice in news reports.
“People earlier did not have access to large information but now they do. Accuracy should not be compromised in the race to report an event. There is the Press Council of India to regulate news reports but for news channels, there is self-regulation and self-regulation is not an adequate solution as it binds those who willingly are a part of such regulation. There should be some regulation which binds this new age of journalism,” she said.
The judge said that claim to speak, to publish and to make known is one of the great historic claims to liberty but since a “free and balanced press which is the fourth pillar of democracy” should remain unbiased.
“Playing a devil’s advocate to the government should not become the sole aim of the press. It must be focused on constructive criticism. In today’s age of clickbait journalism, there exists a subtle line that should not be crossed. Journalists must give complete context while quoting people from public life. Mixing of politics with journalism is detrimental to the idea of free speech and if media has to enjoy the trust of the public, it must resist all temptations to mix the two.”
Justice Nagarathna also flagged the dangers of fake news, yellow journalism and fear-mongering by the media. The apex court judge said that the body was needed not to control the media but to act against media entities propagating fake news.
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“A regulatory body should not become a means to exercise control over the body of the press. I express hope that all journalists will navigate their profession by maintaining the highest standards of ethics and the right to a free press must be exercised with the belief that a right comes with responsibilities not only to the public but also to the nation.”
She further stated that even though journalists and the press have to break down complex information, such simplification must go hand in hand with maintaining accuracy.
“Journalists must give complete context while quoting people from public life. Mixing of politics with journalism is detrimental to the idea of free speech and if media has to enjoy the trust of the public it must resist all temptations to mix the two,” she stated.
“The vibrancy, heterogeneity and plurality of any democracy is compromised when the press is prevented from performing this task, with all objectivity...The press must remain free if a country is to remain a democracy, in the truest sense...,” she said.
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