Catchy but misleading headlines often unreflective of the actual content: CJI Ramana

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Chief Justice of India NV Ramana has today said that in the hope of grabbing the eyeballs, the headlines that are given for news reports are catchy but misleading. The headline is often unreflective of the actual content of the reports.

CJI Ramana further said that it is often said that the legal profession is a noble profession. "I can state that the journalist’s job is as noble and is an integral pillar of democracy," CJI Ramana added.

While speaking at the presentation of the RedInk Awards by the Mumbai Press Club CJI Ramana said, "Speaking truth to power and holding up a mirror to society, is an immense responsibility that is extremely difficult to fulfill. There is enormous pressure and stress upon you. In the contemporary world, performing your duty as a journalist is akin to dancing on razor’s edge."

CJI Ramana posthumously presented the Journalist of the Year Award- 2020 to the Reuters Photo Journalist Danish Siddiqui who was killed during the Afghanistan War on July 16, 2021

Paying respect to Danish CJI Ramana said, "He was a man with a magical eye and was rightly regarded as one of the foremost photo-journalists of this era. If a picture can tell a thousand words, his photos were novels."

Talking at the even CJI Ramana said, "As a key stakeholder in democracy, media has the duty to defend and protect the judiciary from motivated attacks by evil forces."

CJI Ramana quoted Justice Frankfurter, the judge of US Supreme Court stating that, “The freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means to the end of achieving a free society.”

CJI Ramana said, "Journalists are like judges in one sense." In addition to this CJI Ramana suggested the journalists that regardless of the ideology one profess and the beliefs one holds, one must do his duty without being influenced by them.

"Allowing yourself to be co-opted by an ideology or the State is a recipe for disaster," CJI Ramana added.

CJI Ramana also paid tribute to all the journalists who lost their lives while reporting from the ground during this pandemic.