Press Council of Tamil Nadu to be headed by a retired Judge of Supreme Court or High Court
Chennai:
To weed out fake journalists, the Tamil Nadu government should constitute a Press Council within three months, the Madras High Court has ruled.
The Press Council of Tamil Nadu should be headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court or High Court, its members should be a team of experienced and eminent journalists, both serving and retired, retired civil servants and IAS and police officers. The court recently spoke of IPS in its direction to the state government.
The council will consist of representatives from the journalism industry as well as the government and all members will be permanent journalists and government employees. The members will be on the regular payroll of media houses and organizations as evidenced by salary slips, payment of TDS and circulation or viewership details, as the case may be.
A division bench of Justices N Kirubakaran (since superannuation) and P Velmurugan observed that resignation, dismissal or loss of job due to any reason like death and disability would result in immediate exit from the board.
The bench was disposing of two PILs by S Sekaran, who claimed himself to be a journalist. His first petition prayed for a direction to the Home Secretary and DGP, CB-CID to consider his representation of September 26, 2019 for forming a team and in the idol theft submitted by the then Idol Wing Special Officer. Check against reports giving misleading test data. AG Pon Manikwell, now retired.
The other prayed for a further direction to both the officers to form a team and consider their one more plea to investigate the economic offense run by a trust.
In his first petition, Sekaran made various allegations against Manikavel such that he did not trace the criminals who had committed the theft and smuggling of idols and that the investigation conducted by him was incompetent and the investigation report was not correct.
The other prayed for an inquiry against a trust for collection of funds. He suspected that the real motive of the trust was to support Pon Manikwell or anyone.
During arguments and on verification of records, the bench found that the petitioner could be the mouthpiece of Kader Basha, who was involved in idol theft cases along with other accused.
Although it did not completely reject his submission in support of his stand that he was a reporter, the Bench was of the view that he had filed the petition to divert the investigation into idol theft cases and at the instance of certain third parties . case
The bench noted that these days it is common for posh SUV cars to have “press” stickers on the front windshield and rear “Human Rights” labels and driven by fraudsters posing as journalists.
There have been many cases of police registering cases against such fraudsters after they were caught committing heinous crimes. Politicians, land sharks, smugglers and even murderers have been seen shaking hands with these “mafia journalists”.
These “journalists” have formed fake media associations and unions, enrolling all kinds of anti-social elements as members and issuing them “press” ID cards, which they use as a money-making tool. Huh.
The Directorate of Information and Public Relations is aware of this, but the officials turn a blind eye – so that there is no wrath in the hands of those fake journalists. This needs to be stopped to ensure that journalism, the fourth pillar of democracy, remains clean and strong. In view of the above position, necessary directions should be issued to clear the media in the interest of the public, the bench issued the directions.
The Council shall have the sole authority to recognize Press Clubs and Journalists Associations or Associations in the State and shall not permit or recognize the formation or continuation of Clubs or Associations or Associations on the basis of caste, community or State boundaries.
It shall conduct and approve the elections, management of these clubs, unions and associations and shall vest with the elected team of office bearers only after such approval by the Board. It should set a duration.
The state government will not directly allot any house or free bus pass to any applicant journalist and it should only be routed through the council, which may issue such benefits after due diligence. It shall prohibit the holding of State conferences or meetings by journalists’ associations without the permission/approval of the Press Council to be constituted, which shall obtain details on the source of income and other relevant details before allowing such meetings.
In order to mitigate the menace of fake journalists, the Council shall have the power to identify such persons and lodge complaints against them with the jurisdictional police. The public as well as other affected people can send their complaints on fake journalists to the Welfare Board, which will investigate such fake journalists and initiate criminal action against them as they are a threat and danger to the civil society.
The state will make necessary amendments in the accreditation rules within three months and will not issue press stickers, ID cards and other benefits, unless the organization or media house provides proof of number of employees, salary slips, TDS details, taxes paid to the government and does not disclose. whether it sells a certain number of copies or has a certain number of viewers.
The Government/Council shall not issue Press ID cards or stickers to print media, magazines, dailies unless there is proof of circulation of at least 10,000 copies of their daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly and ID cards, the same will be increased or decreased in proportion. their movement.
After the formation of the council, all journalist organizations will be put in suspended animation so that elections for those organizations can be held within six months under its supervision.
People suffering from fake news or motivated and agenda-based news can file a complaint with the council, which will summon the news agency or media house or the concerned reporter and check the veracity of the complaints.
Based on the findings, the Council shall have the right to reply to the source of the objectionable news or apologise or order the original complainant’s response to be published prominently.
The bench said that the news agencies or media houses or journalists working under the jurisdiction of the council shall be bound to receive and respond to the summons of the council and furnish the details sought by the council. The judges said the government would comply with the above directions and file a compliance report within four weeks, failing which the director, information and public relations department would appear before this court.
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