When the Supreme Court reprimanded TV news

Brut India

"Chief medium of hate speech." Here are the three key takeaways from the Supreme Court's observations on TV news and hate speech. Brut journalist Labanya explains.

Transcript

00:00The Supreme Court made oral observations during the course of a hearing,

00:03berating TV news by calling it the chief medium of hate speech.

00:08They were talking about television debates with multiple panellists,

00:12which often turned into shouting matches,

00:14where selective people either spoke too much or too little.

00:18Justices KM Joseph and Rishikesh Roy were hearing 11 petitions on regulating hate speech,

00:25when they sternly called the government a mute witness.

00:29These petitions questioned a show aired by Sudarshan News,

00:33speeches made at Dharam Sansad meetings, and also called for regulating social media.

00:38Here are three key takeaways from what the court said.

00:42We cannot give hate any air. Anchors of TV channels have an important duty to ensure

00:47that the guests invited on their show don't cross the line, the court said.

00:51Justice Joseph said that while freedom of speech is important,

00:55it doesn't give room for hate speech to be allowed on television.

00:59The role of the anchor, he said, is very critical,

01:03because the moment you see somebody going into hate speech,

01:06it is the duty of the anchor to immediately see that he doesn't allow that person to say anything

01:11further. He spoke about how a television channel was heavily fined for this in the UK.

01:17He also suggested that Indian channels be fined or even taken off air.

01:22Why is the government remaining a mute spectator?

01:25The court said that politicians benefit the most out of hate speech,

01:29for which TV channels give them a platform.

01:32Anchors might have their own views in line with the business interests of the channel,

01:36said Justice Joseph. But he added that their right is lesser than that of a listener.

01:42So, although freedom of press is important, the anchors need to know where to draw the line.

01:47The court also expressed its inability to take over powers of the legislature

01:51and form laws around this. They requested the central government to assist the court

01:56instead of taking an adversarial stand.

01:58Earlier in July, the Supreme Court had directed the Home Ministry to prepare a detailed chart

02:04outlining the measures taken by the states to curb hate speech.

02:07Only 14 out of 29 states responded.

02:11And since the central government hadn't filed its affidavit yet,

02:15the court asked if it thought this was a trivial matter.

02:18Killing someone. You can do it in multiple ways.

02:22Hate speech has a layered impact, said Justice Joseph.

02:26He said,

02:27Killing someone. You can do it in multiple ways.

02:30Slowly or otherwise.

02:32They keep us hooked using certain convictions.

02:36The judge said the media should tell the masses what others have said,

02:40not what they want to say.

02:41He added,

02:42Pillars of democracy are supposed to be independent and not take orders from anyone.

02:47These observations were made by the court during the oral arguments,

02:51and they are not the final judgement of the court.

02:54The case will be heard further on 23rd November 2022.

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