Journalists Jailed For Reports On Chief Justice
On September 20, 2007, four journalists of Mid Day, including Resident Editor Vitusha Oberoi and City Editor MK Tayal, were sentenced to four months jail on contempt of court charges, because of a report they had filed on the ex-Chief Justice of India, Y. K. Sabharwal. Whether the charges in the report were true or not was not considered in arriving at the decision.
Many in the legal community feel that in the 2006 Delhi sealing drive, Justice Sabharwal may have had a conflict of interest since his sons own a firm with relations to the Delhi real estate. Former Solicitor General KK Sud had called this behaviour "the height of indiscretion."
The High Court, however, sentenced the journalists without considering the veracity of the reports, and this led to considerable controversy. Ex-law minister Shanti Bhushan stated that the Parliament had in 2006 amended the Contempt of Courts Act to say that "if the allegations against a judge were found to be true, then they would not be considered contemptuous." In view of this, the judgment, he said, may be "only aimed at terrifying the media and an attempt to curb truthfulness."
Read more about this topic: Mid Day
Famous quotes containing the words journalists, jailed, reports, chief and/or justice:
“The journalists have constructed for themselves a little wooden chapel, which they also call the Temple of Fame, in which they put up and take down portraits all day long and make such a hammering you can’t hear yourself speak.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“One alone in a Chinese square
confronted tanks, while others fled.
He stood for freedom for us all,
but few care now if he’s jailed or dead.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“The three-year-old who lies about taking a cookie isn’t really a “liar” after all. He simply can’t control his impulses. He then convinces himself of a new truth and, eager for your approval, reports the version that he knows will make you happy.”
—Cathy Rindner Tempelsman (20th century)
“The wisest conservatism is that of the Hindoos. “Immemorial custom is transcendental law,” says Menu. That is, it was the custom of the gods before men used it. The fault of our New England custom is that it is memorial. What is morality but immemorial custom? Conscience is the chief of conservatives.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“They make a great ado nowadays about hard times; but I think that ... this general failure, both private and public, is rather occasion for rejoicing, as reminding us whom we have at the helm,—that justice is always done. If our merchants did not most of them fail, and the banks too, my faith in the old laws of the world would be staggered.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)