The Madras High Court has directed the State government to constitute a body named the Press Council of Tamil Nadu (PCTN) to protect the interests of genuine journalists and clamp down on the fake ones who indulge in illegal and unethical practices such as blackmailing industrialists, businessmen, government officials and politicians for their unjust enrichment.
Justices N. Kirubakaran (since retired) and P. Velmurugan ordered that the proposed PCTN should be constituted in three months and be headed by a retired judge of either the Supreme Court or the High Court. Experienced and reputed journalists, both working and retired, retired civil servants and Indian Police Service (IPS) officers must be its members.
“The council shall have sole authority to recognise press clubs and journalists’ associations or unions in the State of Tamil Nadu, and it shall not allow or recognise the formation or continuation of clubs or unions or associations based on caste, community or State boundaries. The council shall conduct and approve elections to these clubs, unions and associations,” the court ordered.
The PCTN should stipulate the period of elections for each association and any body which does not conduct elections on time should automatically be brought under the administration of the council. The Division Bench further ordered that the proposed PCTN would have the authority to decide on the number of journalists’ associations that could be permitted in each city or town.
“The State government shall not allot any house or grant free bus passes directly to any applicant journalist, and those applications shall only be routed through the PCTN, which after due diligence, can issue such benefits,” the court said, adding that journalists’ associations should disclose their sources of income and obtain the council’s permission before conducting State conferences and meetings.
“The PCTN shall have the power to identify fake journalists and lodge complaints against them to the jurisdictional police. Members of the public can send their complaints regarding fake journalists to the welfare board, which will inquire and initiate criminal action against such fake journalists, because they are a menace and a threat to the civil society,” the Bench wrote.
The judges also issued a direction to the State government not to issue press stickers, identity cards or other benefits, unless the organisation or media house discloses the number of employees, salaries paid to them, details of tax deducted at source, tax paid to the government and proof that it sells certain number of copies or has certain amount of viewership.
“The State government/PCTN shall not issue press ID cards or stickers to print media, magazines or dailies, unless there is proof of circulation of at least 10,000 copies of their daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly, and the number of ID cards shall be increased or decreased proportionate to their circulation,” the judgment read.
After the constitution of the PCTN, all journalist organisations in the State should be kept in suspended animation, so that elections can be conducted for those organisations under the supervision of the council, in six months, the Bench said. It made it clear that people aggrieved by fake news or motivated and agenda-based news could lodge complaints with the PCTN.
The State government must comply with the directions and file a compliance report in four weeks, failing which, director of the Information and Public Relations Department should appear before the court, the judges ordered.
The orders were passed while disposing of two writ petitions filed by S. Sekaran, who claimed to be a journalist. Disposing of his first case, the judges directed retired Inspector General of Police A.G. Ponn Manickavel to handover, if not already handed over, all records of investigation related to the theft of ancient idols in the State to the present head of the Idol Wing CID, so that the cases could be investigated effectively. Passing orders in the second case, the court directed the CB-CID to register a case against Airavath Trust for having solicited donations on social media by claiming that it was taking steps to restore a dissolved special Division Bench of the High Court to exclusively hear all cases related to idol thefts.
The directions with regard to PCTN were issued in public interest.
