A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking direction to the Centre to preserve and protect the fundamental rights of the press, electronic and print media guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India.
The petition states that at present some news channels who expose the reasons and involvement of anti-social and anti-national persons behind the incident are being targetted. A number of FIRs are being lodged in different states to snub their voice, in order to prevent them from making the citizens aware of the nefarious and dangerous activities of such elements, it said.
Filed by Advocate Ghanshyam Upadhyay, the PIL sought directions to the Centre to preserve and protect the fundamentals rights of media guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) Constitution due to which general public becomes aware, and is able to form an opinion about the functioning of the respective governments (both Centre and state) and officers working under it.
"It is relevant to mention that no provision has been enacted to protect the freedom of press from frivolous and malicious prosecution and there is complete vacuum on this subject. Therefore, the petitioner makes a request to the court to lay down some guidelines to protect the press providing that no FIR shall be registered and/or prosecution launched against press/media/journalist and its people for the offences punishable," it stated.
( With inputs from ANI )