SC issues notices to HT, TOI in unwanted sexually explicit
A Supreme Court Bench comprising of Chief Justice RC Lahoti, Justice GP Mathur and Justice PK Balasubramanyan has issued notices to the Centre, Press Council of India, news agencies - PTI and UNI, and leading dailies Times of India and Hindustan Times.
The notices were issues upon hearing the petitioner's contention that newspapers "numerous attempts to cater to prurient interest of the public at large" to increase their circulation.
A Writ Petition (Civil)[384/2005] Ajay Goswami .Vs. Union of India & others came up for hearing on 18th August.
"The newspapers are publishing titillating material in the form of SMS jokes, articles on pornography, sex education (which at times is more pornography than education), comments on porn magazines or movies inaddition to semi-nude photographs," the petitioner said and pleaded that there was an urgent need to protect the minors from their bad influence."
The Union of India and the Press Council of India (PCI) have failed to frame any rules and regulations on this aspect," the petitioner said.
The court has been requested to direct the Centre to constitute an expert Committee to look into the problem of unwanted exposure of sexually explicit material to the minor through the media and lay down rules and regulations for the same.It said that it was the duty of the Government to protect the minors from such exposure to unwanted material circulated through media, as it was a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Both the charters had got a pledge from the countries to protect the vulnerable minors from abuse, exploitation and harmful effects of "such expression"
."The compelling interest is to protect the physical and psychological well-being of minors from the influence of literature, which is not obscene from the adult point of view".
"The PCI has laid down from time to time principles and ethics to be observed by the journalists, which are directive in nature, incomplete and even otherwise do not deal with the issue of protecting minors".
The notices were issues upon hearing the petitioner's contention that newspapers "numerous attempts to cater to prurient interest of the public at large" to increase their circulation.
A Writ Petition (Civil)[384/2005] Ajay Goswami .Vs. Union of India & others came up for hearing on 18th August.
"The newspapers are publishing titillating material in the form of SMS jokes, articles on pornography, sex education (which at times is more pornography than education), comments on porn magazines or movies inaddition to semi-nude photographs," the petitioner said and pleaded that there was an urgent need to protect the minors from their bad influence."
The Union of India and the Press Council of India (PCI) have failed to frame any rules and regulations on this aspect," the petitioner said.
The court has been requested to direct the Centre to constitute an expert Committee to look into the problem of unwanted exposure of sexually explicit material to the minor through the media and lay down rules and regulations for the same.It said that it was the duty of the Government to protect the minors from such exposure to unwanted material circulated through media, as it was a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Both the charters had got a pledge from the countries to protect the vulnerable minors from abuse, exploitation and harmful effects of "such expression"
."The compelling interest is to protect the physical and psychological well-being of minors from the influence of literature, which is not obscene from the adult point of view".
"The PCI has laid down from time to time principles and ethics to be observed by the journalists, which are directive in nature, incomplete and even otherwise do not deal with the issue of protecting minors".
posted by Pradeep at 10:09 PM
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