The Supreme Court on Wednesday came down heavily on television channels while hearing pleas regarding incidents of hate speech and said that the role of anchor is “very critical”.
“Political parties are making capital out of it. TVs are acting as platforms. Either Hate Speech takes place in social media or TVs. As far as mainstream TVs which still hold way, there role of the anchor is very critical,” said Justice KM Joseph during the hearing today.
He added that most of the times, those who want to speak are muted.
Justice Joseph asked why the government is remaining a “mute-spectator”. “The government should not take an adversarial stand but assist. Why haven’t you filed counter?”
Justice Joseph remarked that while freedom of speech is important, hate speech cannot be allowed on television and highlighted how one TV channel was heavily fined in the United Kingdom, Bar and Bench reported.
A bench of Justices KM Joseph and Hrishikseh Roy was hearing a batch of pleas seeking steps to be taken against hate speech incidents.
The apex court underlined that politicians benefit the most out of hate speech and television channels give them the platform for the same.
Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde, who was appearing for one of the petitioners, also echoed similar sentiments and said, “Channels and politicians feed on such speech. Channels get money, they keep 10 people in debates. The industry is highly unregulated.”
“Hate speech completely poisons the very fabric of the nation,” a bench of Justices K M Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy observed and underlined the need for a regulatory mechanism to curb it. The top court said a hate speech can come in different forms and the concept of hate is that you can kill someone by ridiculing them on a continuous basis.
The Supreme Court said it made reference to TV news channels because visual media has got a “devastating” effect and nobody cares what is written in newspapers as people are bereft of time to read.
The bench directed the Union of India to make clear its stand as to whether it intends to enact a law on the Law Commision’s recommendations for prohibiting incitement of hate speech. It appointed lawyer Sanjay Hegde as amicus curiae and asked him to collate the responses of the states to the petitions.
Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj told the apex court that that 14 States have filed their responses. The court sought an affidavit from the central government collating the states’ inputs and posted the matter for further consideration on November 23.
(With PTI inputs)
Read all the Latest News India and Breaking News here
Comments
0 comment