ASSIGNMENT

DRIVE FALL 2013

PROGRAM BAJM SEMESTER 6
BJ0062 MEDIA LAW AND ETHICS
Q.No 1 Discuss Contempt of Court.
Answer:
The law of contempt is one of the recognized exceptions under Article 19 (2) to the freedom of
speech and expression guaranteed under Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution of India.
The courts have made a distinction between civil and criminal contempt.
Civil contempt means wilful disobedience to any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or
other process of a court or wilful breach of an undertaking given to a court.
Criminal contempt means the publication, whether by words, spoken or written, or by signs, or
by visible representation, or otherwise, of any matter or the doing of any other act whatsoever
which(i) Scandalizes or tends to scandalize, or lowers or tends to lower the authority of any court, or
(ii) Prejudices, or interferes or tends to interfere with the due course of any judicial proceeding ,
or
(iii) Interferes or tends to interfere with, or obstructs or tends to obstruct, the administration of
justice in any other manner
The definition is extremely wide and there is no explanation as to what tends to scandalize or
interfere with or obstruct the administration of justice.
The law of contempt requires the balancing of two vital but often competing democratic values
the right to free speech and the necessity to safeguard public confidence in the judicial system.
The objective of the contempt jurisdiction is to safeguard the interest of the public, which would
be adversely affected if the authority of the court is denigrated and public confidence in the
administration of justice is undermined.
Let us analyse this further. The republican and democratic character of the Constitution of India
shows that all powers ultimately stems from the people.
It is obvious that the people of India are the masters and all authorities in India (including the
courts) are subservient. Surely, the master has the right to criticize the servant if the servant
does not act or behave properly. It would logically seem to follow that in a democratic country,
the people have the right to criticize the judges. Why then, it may be asked, should there be a
Contempt of Courts
Act which, to some extent, prevents people from criticizing judges or doing mother things which
are regarded as contempt of court? This is a question which calls for a close examination.

Doubtless, the people have created the Constitution. However, the courts have been created by
the Constitution. This implies that people were wise enough to realize that there has to be forum
(or fora) for the resolution of disputes between the people; a forum where peaceful redressal of
grievances could be made possible. In the absence of such a forum, resolution of disputes and
grievances may be done violently. Therefore, the judiciary acts as a safety valve. This perspective
makes one realize that in a democracy, the contempt of court is meant to enable the court to
function. Justice Markandey Katju, feels that it is the duty of the court to invoke contempt so
that the interest of the public is protected. It is not for the court to protect its own dignity or
safeguard itself from insult or injury.
However, in the past couple of years, the debate on the extent to which the law of contempt is
valid has intensified. If it is possible to freely criticize the legislature and the executive, if they
can be brought into conflict without fearing punishment, why cannot the judiciary be criticized
too? There have been too many instances of judges who have failed the test of honesty and
integrity; the faith of the public has been shaken many a time. A former Chief Justice of India
had admitted that almost 20 per cent of judicial officers in India had fallen prey to mcorruption.
The mechanisms put in place to penalize or remove such judges of the higher judiciary are
inadequate. The only removal mechanism is impeachment, which has political connotations.
The lack of transparency has been complained against and it has been felt that there should be
total freedom to criticize the conduct of a judge without fearing any form of punishment.
However, the dividing line between contempt and criticism is a thin one.
The principal test applied by the courts in India while deciding matters of criminal contempt is
the test of the erosion of public confidence. The difference lies between an attack on a judge,
which may be equivalent to libel, and contempt of court. While the former may merely be wrong
done to a judge, the latter seeks to interfere with the course of justice and is a wrong done to the
public.
However, in one of the cases, D.C. Saxena vs. CJI, this distinction became blurred as the
Supreme Court held that libel against a judge can constitute criminal contempt if the imputation
is of such gravity that it erodes public confidence in the system.
2 Discuss Parliamentary Privilege.
Answer:
The Constitution has given special rights to legislators to enable them to effectively perform
their functions, to discuss and debate matters of importance without fear or favour, without
hindrance or obstruction.
According to the Constitution, the powers, privileges and immunities of
Parliament and MPs are to be defined by Parliament. No law has so far been enacted in this
respect. In the absence of any such law, it continues to be governed by British Parliamentary
conventions. There have been several such cases. In 1967, two people were held to be in
contempt of Rajya Sabha, for having thrown leaflets from the visitors gallery. In 1983, one
person was held in breach for shouting slogans and throwing chappals (slippers) from the
visitors gallery.

What is the punishment in case of breach of privilege or contempt of the House? The house can
ensure attendance of the offending person. The person can be given a warning and let go or be
sent to prison as the case may be. In the case of throwing leaflets and chappal, the offending
individuals were sentenced to simple imprisonment.
In the 2007 case of breach of privilege against Ambassador Ronen Sen, the Lok Sabha
Committee on privileges held that the phrase headless chicken was not used by Shri Sen in
respect of MPs or politicians. No action was taken against him.
In 2008, an editor of an Urdu weekly referred to the deputy chairman of
Rajya Sabha as a coward attributing motives to a decision taken by him. The privileges
committee held the editor guilty of breach of privilege. The committee instead of recommending
punishment stated that, it would be better if the House saves its own dignity by not giving
undue importance to such irresponsible articles published with the sole intention of gaining
cheap publicity.
Commonly recognized privileges include the following:
The privilege of the freedom of speech and immunity from proceedings
The right of control publication of legislative proceedings
The right of each House to be the sole judge of the lawfulness of its own proceedings
The right of the House to punish members for their conduct in
Parliament
Protection of witnesses, petitioners and their counsel who appear before the House or any
committee
The right to exclude strangers from the House
The right to decline permission for taking evidence in courts of law of proceedings in
Parliament
Although part of the ordinary law of the land, Parliamentary privilege is in a sense an exemption
from the ordinary law. An extension of privilege is the power of the Parliament and state
legislatures to punish for breach of privilege or for contempt of the House. On some occasions,
the use of this power has brought the legislature into confrontation with the media. A recent
example of the use of this power was the arrest by the Jayalalithaa government in Tamil Nadu of
publishers and journalists of The Hindu for an alleged breach of privilege.
The paper had published a scathing criticism of her government.

3 How are women and children portrayed by the media? Discuss.

Answer:
The media has played a two-pronged role when it comes to women. On the one hand, the media
does not address serious issues of exploitation and unequal treatment of women in different
spheres but is keen to report sex-related incidents. On the other hand, both cinema and
television soaps typically stereotype women, trapped in the tradition of male chauvinism. Most
of the times, a woman is portrayed as a glamorous doll whose physical beauty is her only asset.
The sacrificing role of women in every serial is highlighted, as it poses no threat to the
patriarchal structure. Women are all the time compromising and negotiating. The soap operas
affect women more simply because the women are watching more serials then men. Sex
stereotyping is also very much evident in television portrayal of men and women in their

appointed roles. Invariably, masculine personality attributes are emphasized and women in the
world of television are presented in role of domestic help, a wife, a mother etc. and they are
portrayed as submissive and engrossed in common family affection and duties, as against this,
men are depicted as employed, competitive. Women shown in similar competing roles with men
are far less in number and are considered to be oddities and deviations from norm, trait wise
though there is a stereotype portrayal of women being congenitally much more than men. Even
when women are presented as power holders, the patriarchal context is unmistakably present.
In fact, the attributes of power and aggressiveness is portrayed as something unnatural to a
women and a challenge to the male ego.
These negative stereotypes seem to be a submission to audience demands. The titles of most
soaps either consist of adjectives referring to girls and women such as Baa, Bahu Aur Beti,
Kyonki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Teen
Bahuraniyan, Bhabhi or by their proper names that have no surnames such as
Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin, Saloni ki Shaadi, Kumkum, Kkusum, Kajol, etc. It would be interesting to
analyse why this is so. Why are almost all women in soaps and serials presented and portrayed
in exaggerated images of costume and makeup?
One of the interesting issues is that most of these serials so not seem to project marriage as a
monogamous institution. Why do they deviate from the norm? Given the fact that several
software producers of television serials today are successful and significant women such as Ekta
Kapoor and Smriti Irani, has this helped change the televised image of women for the better?
On the other hand, the positive sides of womens progress and their contribution for national
development are not been adequately discussed in the media. The emphasis on stories about
women, about their struggle for recognition is only the surface trimming. The actual message to
audience still is that society opposes the liberation of women. Thus, the educated woman is
portrayed as selfish and insensitive or the financially independent woman is shown as
domineering, hard, ruthless and the cause of all the suffering around her. The portrayal of a
woman as a sex object in advertisements is quite damaging to the reputation of women. Women
are also depicted as a mother, wife, sister and being bereft of an independent opinion.
Usually, news materials related to womens problems never make front page news unless it is a
gruesome murder or a case of rape. It has been observed that newspapers do not address
relevant topics for women empowerment, even in sections specifically meant for women. The
articles in these sections are usually concerned with beauty tips, recipes, fashion syndrome, etc.
The Aarushi murder case is another prime example of irresponsible and sensational reporting by
the media. Her murder had been a major source of increased TRPs for news channels. Electronic
and print media are ethically and legally bound to avoid such sensationalisation of news relating
to victims of crimes especially children. The Press Council of India had already drawn guidelines
on the subject and appeals to media to follow them meticulously while reporting atrocities on
women/child.
Children are the most vulnerable section of the audience who do not yet know what to believe
and what not to believe. Children are easier to influence and are increasingly manipulating the
purse strings of the house to get the things they want. It is for this reason that advertisers have
queued up to make advertisements that would appeal to the children.
There are various aspects of the issue, the most crucial being the impact of television on
children. Studies have shown that they are among the heaviest users of television. Young
children spend between 3 and 4 hours watching television each day. This raises some alarming

questions. What purpose does television serve? What consequence has the use of television? Can
television influence the social, moral, ethical, racial, intellectual and personality development?
Volumes have been written on the effects of television viewing.
Researchers throughout the world have spent years to observe the long term consequences of
television viewing. Television is said to have several functions for children entertainment,
living fantasy and escapism, non-social, informative, social utility and the like.
It is for this reason that the exposure of children to programming on Indian television has raised
its share of concerns. TV channels not only project gender roles in a certain way, they also show
material which may be obscene, shocking, violent, which may have a long term impact on
children. If television is considered to shape the social reality of children, then these are valid
concerns.