MEDIA LAW PROBLEM

Indipa is a secular country with population of 100 crores, and is having population who
worship various religions, however Hindusim is followed by round about 55% of the
population. Indipa has eighteen states.
Indipa has a quasi-federal country with written constitution. Indipa has two major national
political parties but may regional political parties.
State of Kemri is one of the state of Indipa having assembly 245 seats. Pombay is a city
which is situated in state of Kemri, is having a large industrial belt and is termed as financial
capital of Indipa.
In state of Kemri, there was assembly election held in 2018, which was mainly fought
between four parties, which are (i) National progressive party (ii) kemri people’s circle (iii)
Democratic circle and (iv) secular party. National progressive party and kemri people’s
circle formed one alliance and Democratic circle and secular party forming the other alliance.
The result of the elections was as under
National progressive party won 100 seats, Kemri peoples circle secured 55 seats,
Democratic circle secured 51 seats, and secular party secured 39 seats.
Ideally speaking the alliance of National progressive party and Kemri peoples circle should
have formed the government, but the leader of party, kemri people’s circle, Mr. Urav Tharey
at the last movement demanded that the Chief Minister should be made of kemri people’s
circle, to which National progressive party refused, as they were the single largest party. As a
result kemri people’s circle broke the alliance with National progressive party. Ultimately
Mr. Urav Tharey became the Chief Minister, with support of Democratic circle, and secular
party, making it three party post poll alliance.
In January 2019 there was outbreak of a terrible pandemic Colid -19 in entire world. Indipa
also went into lockdown for a period of one month. The statistic suggest that state of Kemri
was worst affected by the pandemic, in comparison with other states in Indipa.
‘News Now’ is a news channel having its head office at Pombay and is telecasted throughout
the country of Indipa. The channel is headed by Mr. Arap Gowami. Arap Gowami was also
one of the anchor on this channel, and had aggressive style of hosting shows. This channel
became very popular news channel and was receiving highest TRP. It is said that Mr. Arap
Gowami is said to have inclination towards National progressive party.
On 2nd April 2019 two sadhus were beaten to death by an angry mob consisting of around 100
to 150 men, in front of police station somewhere in the corporation area of Pombay. While
the Sadhus were being beaten the police personals were mute spectators. Some incident was
captured by the CCTV camera situated outside the said police station. The footage went viral
and there was anguish expressed from people mainly through social media regarding the said
incident.
The channel ‘News Now’ was constantly highlighting this news and was repeatedly
demanding strong action against the mob. The Chief Minister though expressed grief over the
matter, also stated that the law will take its own course. The representatives of the channel
‘News Now’ were constantly visiting the police station but the police denied to give any
concrete information.
Even after two months after the sadhu’s murder there was neither any arrest, nor there was
not any significant progress over the said matter. The channel ‘News Now’ was still
following the matters of sadhus. Somewhere in July 2019 the FIR was registered regarding
the offence, however there was no significant development on the matter. The Channel
‘News Now’ was through its channel was taking credit of the FIR which was filed, stating
that because of its repeated coverage the pressure was built and the police was forced to take
action. Both the police and the state government denied the claim of the channel and stated
that the law was taking its own course.
In August 2019 when the matter was still been perceived by the channel ‘News Now’, the
Chief Minister, during an interview to some other channel indirectly criticized Mr. Arap and
his channel, quoted that as a Chief minister he needs to pay attention to various important
issues of immediate public interest, and some channels are neglecting the interest of the state
and are running their own agenda for superficial gains. Retaliating to this criticism, Mr. Arap
stated that it is time to a Chief Minister to act on injustice rather than spending his time to
advice a media person as what they should be doing. In fact the channel intensified its
struggle and identified some of the people, and went on to contend that the state government
was interested to protect these men and so was reluctant to take any action against them.
On 1st September 2019 the state government issued a letter to the channel ‘News Now’ to
immediately stop the telecast the news relating to the murder of sadhus, as it may give rise to
communal riots and thus the peace and order of the state may be in danger.
On 6th September 2019 the channel gave reply to the government that the telecast of the said
news is their fundamental right and the government cannot fix the agenda of this channel.
On 10th September 2019 the state government of Kemri banned the telecast of the Channel
‘News Now’ in entire state of Kemri with immediate effect. As a result the broadcast of the
said channel was stopped in the state of Kemri.
The Channel ‘News Now’ filed a writ petition in the High Court of Kemri for stating that the
action of the state government was a gross violation of the fundamental rights of freedom to
speech and expression.
The state government replied that the said action was justified under the Article 19(2) as it
was detrimental to public peace and order of the state of Kemri. The state government also
contended that the channel by repeated telecast of the news was trying to target a certain
group and also conducting media trial.
The High court admitted the petition and was pleased to frame the following issues.
1. Whether Article 19(1) (a) is violated by the State government?
 2. Whether the repeated telecast of the news relating to the death of the sadhus is
constituting the media trial or any impediment in carrying out legal proceedings in the
instant case?
3. Whether the repeated telecast of the news relating to the death of the sadhus is likely
to cause the breach of peace in state of Kemri?
The said matter is now for final hearing.
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 All the laws of the country Indipa is pari passu to Indian laws.
 The constitution of Indipa is pari passu to the Constitution of India
 The students are supposed to answer the above issues, however, they can frame any
other additional issues if they feel necessary.
 All the decisions of the Supreme Court of India are authoritative precedents while the
decisions of various High Courts of India are persuasive precedents