Editor's Pick: The Tablighi case and media regulation

(The Editor's Pick is a new newsletter from The Hindu that provides a snapshot of the most important stories from today's edition of our newspaper, along with a note from our top editors on why we chose to give prominence to these stories.)

The Supreme Court of India has asked the Central government whether it has a mechanism to counter fake news on television. It asked the government to create one if it didn't exist, and warned that the task could be handed over to an outside agency otherwise. These observations came from a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde in the Tablighi Jamaat case. Several petitions have alleged that some television channels gave a highly communal colour to the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi during the early days of the lockdown which became a hotspot for COVID-19. The government submitted an affidavit that stated that the coverage had "predominantly struck a balanced and neutral perspective.”

The television media in India is self-regulated. Its content adheres to the Code of Ethics and Standards set by the News Broadcasting Standards Authority, an independent industry body. There are no statutory bodies like the Press Council of India, which governs the print media. The main legal provision applicable to television media is the Cable TV Network (Regulation) Act of 1995. The Act has a Programme Code which prohibits certain content, such as those that affect the integrity of the nation, or are critical of any community or religion. The Supreme Court, in the Tablighi Jamaat case, has been asking whether the government had the power to question or block a channel, and found the government response "evasive". The government had in 2016 used a provision of the Act on live coverage of terrorist attacks to block NDTV's Hindi channels. The Solicitor-General for the government has now said that a detailed affidavit will be filed on the provisions of the Act.

The Tablighi case is now expanding to cover larger questions such as media regulation and dealing with fake news, with the Supreme Court touching on a possible statutory mechanism to regulate television media. This is what makes this story important.