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Journalism of Courage
On the eve of polls, the Supreme Court has stepped in to enforce the model code. To stop ‘‘mudslinging’’ by parties, it has banned telecast of all political advertisements on Cable Network and TV channels which offend the ‘‘morality, decency and religious susceptibility’’ of viewers, and has asked the Election Commission to monitor them.
Nullifying an Andhra Pradesh High Court order allowing political advertisements, a Bench comprising Chief Justice V N Khare, Justice S B Sinha and Justice S H kapadia accepted the submissions of Attorney General Soli J Sorabjee in putting in force a ban on ‘‘political mudslinging’’ through surrogate advertisements.
Observing that ‘‘we are in the midst of watching a great cricket series and we do not want it to be substituted by political mudslinging’’, the Bench also cautioned the Cable Networks and TV channels not to air any political advertisement that was ‘‘shocking, disgusting and revolting’’.The court has asked the EC to respond by Monday on whether the money spent on advertisements by candidates for the election could be included in his election expenses, which has been limited to Rs 25 lakhs per Lok Sabha constituency and Rs 10 lakhs for Assembly seats.
The Bench also issued notice to Gemini TV, on whose writ petition the High Court had stayed Rule 7(3) of the Cable TV Network Rules, 1994, on the ground that it was against the fundamental right of a person to carry on any business.
Starting the arguments on the Special Leave Petition filed by Information and Broadcasting Ministry challenging the HC order, Sorabjee stated that nobody was against telecast of ‘‘healthy political debates’’ as was being carried on several TV channels at present.
‘‘What one objects to is projecting the leader of Opposition in a bad light by linking her father to World War II, projecting the Prime Minister in a shocking manner and showing the Deputy Prime Minister in a situation that is totally out of context,’’ Sorabjee said. He questioned the HC’s wisdom in staying the rule, which has been in operation for the last 10 years, through an interim order.
The Bench agreed with him saying that the HC appeared to have stayed the rule ‘‘in a hurried manner’’ and wondered if ‘‘it is the way to deal with a case?’’
Appearing for Gemini TV, senior advocate Harish Salve submitted that Rule 7(3) was ‘‘very wide’’ in its application and if applied as such would stiffle political debate. Without going into the provision of Rule 7(3), the Bench said it would be appropriate to ban political advertisements that were offensive to the morality and those which hurt the religious susceptibility of the viewers.
Terming the electronic media as ‘‘by far the most powerful medium available’’ the Government said the ban on political and surrogate advertisements were imposed as it was felt that ‘‘permitting political advertisements on the electronic media could result in the electoral proceess being grossly distorted by money power.’’
