Blurred demarcation between media limit and judiciary’s role
LAHORE: In the recent past, debates on the issue of clash of institutions, especially judiciary and the legislature, were in the full glare of publicity; however, the question of clash between judiciary and media remained under the cover, mainly that such an issue might impede in dispensation of justice.
Due to media interference and commentary on the cases under trail in courts, the accused party had to face various trails as per ground realities – media trial, social trail and the court trail. In many instances when the court is scheduled to take up the matter of a certain case on the very next day, television anchorpersons conduct live programmes on the same case and try to fix on the matter through media trial.
In fact such television programmes generate public opinion and announce their decision much before a final verdict is given by the court of law. In many instances even when the courts clears the accused party of all charges, a parallel media trial and social trial of people continue to take place and layman stick to their opinion developed by the media. This clash between media and courts is damaging the very social fabric of the society as well as weakening the confidence of people in judiciary.
As a case study the sexual harassment case titled ‘Dr Mujahid Kamran vs Khujista Rehan’ in the Lahore High Court. Dr Mujahid Kamran is the Vice Chancellor of the Punjab University while complainant woman is a lecturer in University Law College.
Almost every day, some of the media channels and newspapers report on a particular case and highlight a certain point of view creating interruption in the way of court proceedings. Even one party of the case stage protest demonstrations in front of Lahore High Court, GPO Chowk and Punjab Assembly. Whenever some media channels ask for comments, the other party avoid speaking on the case, saying it’s a subjudice matter.
However, the other party continue to appear on media, one hour long interview on a private TV channel, an interview regarding the case in a largely circulated English newspaper and a press conference in Lahore Press Club
A question strikes people’s mind whether one could comment on a sub judice matter on media. Similar queries surface whether one party could go to media when the case is under trial in court or do courts could take notice of parallel media trail. Under what law courts can take notice of media commentary in sub judice matters? Against whom the court will take action the media organisation or the party appearing on media. These are the queries, which needed to be answered and demand immediate attention of our judiciary. Because this is the high time and our society is asking for its permanent solution. Jurisdiction of all pillars of the state needs to be clarified and there should be no confusion for the sake of strengthening the democratic process as well as the democratic institutions.
Giving his expert opinion in this regard, Senator SM Zaffar, renowned lawyer, said according to the law, such media organisations and persons commit interruption in the proceedings of the court and are considered accused of contempt of court. He said in the case of Justice Shabbir, contempt notice was issued in a similar matter. He said this was a matter of interruption in dispensation the justice.
Public interest litigation expert advocate Lahore High Court Azhar Siddique says the law was very clear on this pertinent question. This a compulsory condition in Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) Act, the Defamation Act and press laws that writing and commenting on sub judice matter in a way to prejudice a pending case is violation of the law. He said making public opinion in a case under trial in any court of law was forbidden.
In ‘Mujahid Kamran vs Khujista Rehan case’, the Protection Against Harassment of Women at The Workplace Act, 2010, was allegedly violated time and again as confidentiality was not maintained as required in the law. The act mentions the word “confidential” six times in the nine-page law document emphasising the importance of confidentiality during the proceedings of the inquiry process until a final decision.
Section (v) of sub-head Retaliation reads: “The alleged accused will be approached with the intention of resolving the matter in a confidential manner.” The spirit of the law is to take care of the social respect of the accused party until he/she is proved guilty.
This is high profile case where violation of law has been committed reportedly. The democratic society moves forward learning from mistakes and adopting right practices. To address the question of parallel and simultaneous trail in media and courts has become even more important because recently a petition has been moved to the Supreme Court of Pakistani, challenging media coverage of comments (observations) of judges until the case is decided. In the wake of this development, the question of conducting TV current affairs programmes or publishing comments on sub judice matters has become even more important to address properly.
Judiciary and media both are powerful pillars of the state, however, the latter must give due regard by not violating the jurisdiction of the courts for healthy growth of the society and for the sake of dispensation of fair justice.
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