No ban on media on court premises: Kerala High Court

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Friday clarified that there was  no ban on the media reporting court cases and entry of media persons on the court premises. “It is clarified that no restrictions exist preventing media personnel from entering any court premises in Kerala for the purpose of gathering news and reporting the same,” it said.  

Registrar-General Ashok Menon, in a press release sent though the Public Relations Officer of the High Court via email,  stated that the attempt to solve the issues between media persons and the lawyers was  in progress. Meanwhile, WAN-IFRA, World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers,  has also sent a letter to the Chief Justice of Kerala. 

“In any democratic country, especially India, an independent media plays a pivotal role in disseminating information to the public concerning the fair and impartial functioning of an independent judiciary. We are disturbed to learn that journalists  have been denied entry to courtrooms to cover proceedings, instead forcing them to rely on information provided to them by the Public Relations Officer of the Kerala High Court,” said the letter  written by Mr Thomas Brunegard, president of WAN-IFRA. 

The letter was also sent to the chief minister. WAN-IFRA is the global organisation for the world's newspapers and news publishers with formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. The organisation groups 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries.