The Madras High Court has dismissed a public interest litigation petition which sought a direction to the Centre as well as the State government to restrain the print as well as broadcast media from revealing personal details of those tested positive for COVID-19.
Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and M. Nirmal Kumar rejected the PIL plea moved by advocate M. Zainul Abideen after observing that the Centre had already communicated to the media the Supreme Court’s directive to desist from disseminating unverified news.
The judges also observed that the litigant and others could always approach the Press Council of Indian (PCI) or the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council, a self-regulatory body set up by Indian Broadcasting Foundation, in case they had objection to any content.
Also taking note that there was no statutory body in the country to have a watch over contents aired in the visual media, the judges said, it was up to the legislature to take a call as to whether a council similar to the PCI should be constituted for the broadcast media too.
