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The Madras High Court has directed to establish a  “Press Council of Tamil Nadu” to identify fake journalists and lodge complaints against them to the police, and to handle other state level operations of journalism.

A divisional bench of Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice P Velumurugan noted, “This is the position of media as on date. People want the news as it is and not the views of the editors or reporters. Many media houses very sadly report the news according to their views and ideology. One can have ideology/ views but that should not be mixed with the contents of the news as it would amount to corrupt practice, thrusting one's views on others.”

“NEWS is expected But VIEWS are reported,” the bench said.

The bench was hearing two petitions, one of them seeking directions to the Director General of Police (DGP) to form a team and investigate against the report showing fallacious investigation data in the idol theft submitted by the special officer Idol Wing. The second petition seeks a team to be constituted for the investigation into economic offence piloted by Airavath trust represented by Sridaranand.

The first plea filed by a press reporter seeks “through enquiry in respect of records of idol wing and the cases investigated during the year 2012 to October 2018, to find out the true status of 1125 stolen idols and the earlier statistics of the predecessors of Tr. PonManickavel. “

Whereas, the second one has questioned the veracity of Airavath Trust and sought directions to conduct investigation against Airavath Trust for their collection of money to retain judiciary while it is suspected that the real motive of the trust is for supporting Pon Manickavel or anyone.

The plea has alleged, “the idol smuggling network is a huge international smuggling network where hundreds and hundreds of crores of amount have been in flow”.

After deciding over the concerned issues on the petitions, the bench suspected the petitioner's credentials as a journalist and asked him to produce his Identity Card.

In response to this, the Counsel appearing for the petitioner produced six original identity cards while stating that the same has been issued by authorities of Information and Public Relations Department.

However, along with the above mentioned identity cards the bench noted that another identity card was produced that was not related to the petitioner and belonged to one Kadhar Batcha, DSP, District Crime Branch, Thiruvarur, who has been suspended from service for his alleged involvement in “Idol Theft cases”.

The Court after going through all the aspects, noted that it suspected that the "petitioner has filed the present writ petition claiming himself to be a journalist at the instance of the third parties to scuttle the investigation of the idol theft cases. It is not known as to how the identity card of the suspended police official landed in the hands of the petitioner.”

Whereas, at the outset the bench observed that, “media is now a multi-fanged genie that had got out of the bottle and has spread its vicious tentacles everywhere. It is difficult to put it back into the bottle, as everyone has tasted blood. The term ‘media’ broadly comprises the traditional print media (dailies, weeklies, fortnightlies and monthlies), television and online portals. But, nowadays YouTubers, who run their own ‘channels’ and bloggers who are active on their own blog page or do tweets or Instagram activists have also started calling themselves as media persons or ‘media influencers’.”

Afterwards, the bench considering the question as to who will be considered and brought under the brackets of “Mediaperson” said, “It is important because many retired media people are either running a web portal or a YouTube channel or simply start an association. They also call themselves as mediapersons as if there is no concept of retirement for them. So, there is this category of mediapersons who are on the payrolls of regular media houses and their position is statutorily defined”.

This raised another issue that the accreditation card given to senior journalists which gives the journalists access to the assembly, Chief Minister or Ministers functions, etc. is allotted by the accreditation committee, noting that members of the committee themselves are stated to be either fake or retired or from news organisations and associations that exist only on paper.

The bench noted, “A responsible media is necessary to sustain good democracy through dissemination of correct news/ information sans sensationalism and committed to national interests.”

While considering several other contentions along with the ones mentioned above, the bench directed the State Government to appoint “Press Council of Tamil Nadu” headed by a retired Judge of Hon'ble Supreme Court or High Court, consisting of team of experienced and reputed journalists, both working and retired, retired civil servants and police officials in the rank of IAS and IPS, within a period of three months.

The judgment further included the directions,

“(b) The Council shall comprise representatives from the journalism industry as well as the government, and all members shall be serving journalists of standing and government servants. The members shall be on regular payroll of media houses and organisations, evidenced by salary slips, payment of TDS and circulation or viewership details, as the case may be. Their terms will be Xi-terminus with their employment, and loss of job on any account such as resignation, dismissal or death and disability shall result in their immediate exit from the board.

(c) 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 formation or continuation of clubs or unions or associations based on caste, community or state boundaries.

(d) The Council shall conduct and approve elections to these clubs, unions and associations, and management of the clubs, unions and associations shall be vested with the elected team of office bearers only after such approval by the board.

(e) Press Council of Tamil Nadu should stipulate a period of election for each association and any of the association which do not conduct the election on time, shall automatically brought under the administration of Press Council of Tamil Nadu to be constituted.

(f) The Council shall join hands with reputed national and international bodies and offer training or refresher programmes for journalists regularly in order to keep the members of journalistic fraternity remain up to date with developments across the country and abroad. The board shall write to the government and obtain state assistance for the purpose.

(g)The proposed Press Council of Tamil Nadu shall decide about the number of journalists association in each city or town.

 (h)The State Government shall not allot any house or grant free bus passes directly to any applicant journalists and shall only be routed through Press Council of Tamil Nadu which after due diligence can issue such benefits.

(i) The State Government shall prohibit conduct of State conferences or meeting by journalists associations without permission/approval of the Press Council of Tamil Nadu to be constituted which shall get the details regarding the source of income and other relevant details before giving permission for such conference/meeting by the associations.

(j) To curtail the menace of fake journalists, Council shall have power to identify fake journalists and lodge complaints against them to jurisdictional police. Members of public as also other affected people can send their complaints regarding fake journalists to the welfare board which shall inquire and initiate criminal action against such fake journalists because they are a menace and a threat to the civil society.

(k)The State shall make necessary amendments to the Accredition Rules in tune with time within three months.

(l) The State Government is directed not to issue press stickers, I.D cards and other benefits, unless the organisation or media house discloses the number of employees, salary steps, TDS details, tax paid to the Government and proof that it sells certain number of copies or has certain viewership.

(m) The State Government/Press Council of Tamil Nadu shall not issue press ID cards or stickers to the print media, magazines, dailies unless there is proof of circulation of atleast 10,000 copies of their daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly and ID cards shall be increased or decreased proportionate to their circulation.

(n)After constitution of Press Council of Tamil Nadu, all journalists organizations shall be kept in the suspended animation, so that the election could be conducted for those organizations under the supervision of Press Council of Tamil Nadu, within a period of six months thereafter.

(o) The People aggrieved by the fake news or motivated and agenda-based news could lodge complaints with the Press Council of Tamil Nadu which shall summon the news agency or media house or the reported concerned and probe the veracity of the complaints. Depending upon the finding, the Council shall have powers to order the source of the offending news item to carry a rejoinder or apology or publish the response of the de facto complainant prominently. The news agencies or media houses or journalists operating within the jurisdiction of the Council, shall be duty bound to receive and respond to the Council's summons and submit the details called for by the Council.

(p)The Government of Tamil Nadu shall comply with the above directions and file a compliance report within a period of four weeks, failing which the Director, Information and Public Relations Department shall appear before this Court."