Governor P Sathasivam cautions media on reporting court proceedings
He also criticised the practice of giving flash news by jotting down some references made by the court in a case.
Thiruvananthapuram: Governor P. Sathasivam has said that the media should be more vigilant while reporting court proceedings. Mr Sathasivam was addressing the convocation ceremony of postgraduate journalism courses of the Institute of Journalism of Trivandrum Press Club here on Saturday.
Mr Sathasivam said the debate between an advocate and a judge cannot be considered as the view of the court. Judges would have to discuss many things between themselves and also with advocates.
He also criticised the practice of giving flash news by jotting down some references made by the court in a case. Court proceedings should be reported only after understanding fully what had happened in the court. However, this is ignored many a times due to the competition between different media houses.
He narrated an incident during the Human Rights Day function on December 10 in which he himself, state Human Rights Commission chairman Justice J. B. Koshy and DGP T. P. Senkumar took part.
A leading newspaper highlighted the statement made by the DGP where he indirectly mentioned about another officer as the headline. They reduced the statements made by the governor and the chairman to a single line, Mr Sathasivam said.
Mr Sathasivam said that in many cases, the corrections for wrong news reports that appeared in front pages are given in inside pages.