Supreme Court asks Centre, states for their stand on media briefing manual for cops
The document called for avoiding use of terms that stigmatise individuals, victim-blaming, moralising and withholding names, faces, voices and family details
The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Centre and the states to respond to a proposed manual on media briefing by police, which was drafted by a senior lawyer assisting as amicus curiae and seeks to ensure that information shared by police does not result in a media trial and protects the dignity and privacy of victims involved in crimes.
The 61-page document has called for avoiding use of terms that stigmatise individuals, victim-blaming, moralising and withholding names, faces, voices and family details to prevent re-victimisation and secondary harm to victims.
“We will ask the states to go through this document. It is an exhaustive job done by the amicus. We will list the matter after eight weeks,” the bench of justices MM Sundresh and Satish Chandra Sharma said, expressing its appreciation for senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, for putting together the “exhaustive” document. He was assisting the court as amicus curiae, or friend of the court.
The court was hearing a petition filed by People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) in 1999, which highlighted the need for guidelines to regulate the procedure for investigating police encounters and media briefings by police personnel. The court also heard several pleas filed by individuals.
The proposed manual sought to strike a balance between the objectives of securing the investigation, ensuring the right to accurate, timely information of the citizenry under Article 19(1)(a), the right to dignity or privacy of victims of crime, and the right to fair trial of accused, witnesses and suspects under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The document suggests the creation of a media briefing cell and a spokesperson who will be entrusted to transmit information to the media through press releases, media briefings, and social media updates, after it has been vetted by legal officers and the police’s prosecuting wing.
“It is extremely vital in the current social media age that the police communicate only correct, verified, and necessary information to the public to prevent the spread of incorrect information which has the propensity to disrupt law and order,” the draft said.
According to the document, media briefing should satisfy the tests of legality (to ensure any law or court order is not violated), necessity (correcting rumours that can harm law and order or propagate rumours), proportionality (avoiding specifics to avoid privacy breach), and accountability (taking responsibility for the shared content’s veracity).
It required police to avoid commenting on the merits of the case, evidentiary theories, publishing of alleged confessions, investigation techniques, and surveillance methods, while at the same time correcting misinformation spread by media houses.
The document, split into four parts, provides an extensive guide on how to brief, the legal and policy framework governing when to brief, the essentials of press release and media briefing protocols, crisis communications and special cases of custodial deaths, suicides and missing persons, and designated spokespersons or officers to brief the media.
Back in 2010, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had issued brief guidelines for the police following hearings on the petition against the backdrop of the Arushi Talwar murder case where multiple statements given by police led to speculative stories.
Previously, the court had flagged certain concerns to the Centre and urged it to bring uniform guidelines. The bench recognised that the media has a freedom protected under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, which equally guarantees the right of citizens, who are consumers of news, to know news, views and ideas. But at the same time, the court held that during investigation, every accused was entitled to a “fair and unbiased” investigation and a media trial should not pre-judge an accused.
