The Madras High Court on Wednesday invited press clubs and genuine individual journalists in the State to come up with suggestions on restoring the image of the media by weeding out fake journalists who indulge in blackmailing and other illegal money making activities.
Justices N. Kirubakaran and P. Velmurugan said the suggestions could be made in the court on July 14. The judges made it clear that they shall pass comprehensive orders on the issue of creating a committee to identify bogus journalists after hearing all stakeholders concerned.
The judges had taken up the task of cleansing the media of the black sheep during the hearing of a writ petition filed in 2019 by S. Sekaran who claimed to be a journalist.
He had accused former Idol Wing CID head A.G. Ponn Manickavel of having misled the court on recovery of stolen idols.
Denying the accusation in toto, the former police officer’s counsel V. Selvaraj told the court that the petitioner was not a genuine journalist. The court also, on inquiry, found that the writ petitioner was in possession of multiple identity cards to claim himself to be a reporter.
Hence, the court wanted him to appear through video call and explain his stand. However, the petitioner did not appear on Tuesday and instead sent a representation to Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee requesting him to list the case before some other Division Bench.
On Tuesday, the petitioner’s counsel Lita Srinivasan told the court that her client had sent the representation to the Chief Justice without her knowledge and that she was not interested in representing him before the court any more.
She, however, agreed to convey the message that the court wants him to appear on July 14.
During the course of hearing of the case, Justice Kirubakaran said people were highly dependent upon journalists for credible news and information and therefore they should not end up getting misled by bogus journalists who write articles to extort money.
The senior judge also disapproved of the practice of many retired journalists continuing to hold sway in press clubs and “changing their colours according to the political party that assumes power”. The judge also said that the genuine journalists were mute spectators to such irregularities.
Advocate Gautam S. Raman, representing six journalists who had got themselves impleaded in the case, told the court that he had already submitted a statement of recommendations and that may be taken in to consideration while passing orders in the case.
