The Bombay High Court on Monday ruled that ongoing media trial during an ongoing investigation of any case does impact the investigation, reports news agency ANI.
The comes in the context of media trial that happened after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
Ruling in the coverage on Rajput’s death case, the high court said the media trial’ violates programme code under Cable TV Network Regulation Act.
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The Bombay HC said the Press Council of India (PCI) guidelines will apply to electronic media along with print media till the time electronic media frame their own guidelines.
Stating that some reporting by news channels Republic TV and Times Now were “prima facie contemptuous”, it, however, refrained from initiating any action against them.
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The court had reserved its judgment in November last year on Public Interest Litigations (PILs) filed by eight former police officers from Maharashtra, activists, lawyers and NGOs, seeking restraining orders against “media trials” in the Sushant Singh Rajput suicide case.
Rajput was found dead in his Mumbai apartment on June 14, 2020 and CBI, NCB and ED are probing the case.