Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Putting what the Government calls the ‘‘public interest’’ ahead of the sanctity of a contract, the Supreme Court today directed Dubai-based Ten Sports, exclusive live telecast rights holder for the Indo-Pak series, to share the signal once again with Doordarshan for the second one-day match to be played tomorrow.
The interim order passed by a bench headed by Chief Justice V N Khare is however in keeping with a controversial judgment delivered by the apex court in 1995 in a similar telecast rights dispute called Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting vs Cricket Association of Bengal.
The court ruled then that the telecast of a cricket tournament was not so much an issue of contract as of public interest. ‘‘Airwaves constitute public property and must be utilised for advancing public good.’’
Worse, it held: ‘‘No individual has a right to utilise airwaves at his choice and pleasure and for pupose of his choice, including profit.’’
The constitutional justification provided by the 1995 verdict for overriding contractual obligations is: ‘‘The right of free speech guaranteed by Article 19(1)(a) does not include the right to use airwaves, which are public property. The airwaves can be used by a citizen for the purpose of broadcasting only when allowed to do so by the state.’’
Replete with rhetorical flourishes, the 1995 judgment asserted that if the free speech right was allowed to encompass the right to telecast, it would be detrimental to public interest ‘‘as only the privileged few – powerful economic, commercial and political interests – would come to dominate the media.’’
Echoing the 1995 ruling, Attorney General Soli Sorabjee today argued that no one could be allowed to use the airwaves of India disregarding the huge public interest that was involved in the cricket matches with Pakistan.
|
Owner Bukhatir flies
down, will speak today |
|||||
|
• With the Govt bearing down on his channel, Dubai-based Sheikh Abdul Rehman Bukhatir flew into New Delhi. The Sheikh who pioneered cricket in Sharjah and launched Ten Sports two years ago, declined to comment on the ongoing controversy. When contacted by The Indian Express in his Delhi hotel, he said: ‘‘I don’t want to talk about it.’’ Late tonight, his office issued a statement saying he will address a press conference at 8 am, hours before the game begins, on the “imbroglio.” — ENS Story continues below this ad |
|||||
Yet, the consolation today for Ten Sports is that Justice Khare forbade Doordarshan to replace the foreign channel’s advertisements with its own, as it did while showing the first match on Saturday.
Adjourning the case by two days, the bench ordered Doordarshan not to block the logo of Ten Sports. It also directed Doordarshan to deposit Rs 10 crore with the court registry in two days towards the payments it is liable to make to Ten Sports.
But Kapil Sibal, counsel for the Indian distributor of Ten Sports, Taj TV India Private Limited, warned that as the court’s direction would amount to breach of its contract of exclusive rights with the Dubai company, it may not receive the live telecast signal for tomorrow’s match.
In which case, Sibal added, the distributor will not be able to share anything and viewers based in India will not be able to watch the Rawalpindi match either on Doordarshan or on Ten Sports.
Sibal pleaded that his client should therefore not be held liable for contempt if the Dubai company decides not to send the signal in the given circumstances.
The court however declined to record his submission and said, ‘‘We do not want to pre-judge the issue. We will see on Wednesday, if you are in contempt or not.’’
