However good the intentions, Delhi High Court’s “advice” to Times Now and Republic TV to stop maligning film personalities is gratuitous and unimplementable. Who’s to determine what’s malicious or courageous? Nobody defends scurrilous muck passing for journalism. But remedy is to make civil libel processes faster, tougher. Not pre-publication advisories.
All the national newspapers in English one reads are well within the bounds of journalistic responsibility and ethics. If anything, we miss the journalism of Arun Shourie. 2. The channels are something else altogether. The SSR case being a recent example of how the media should not behave. A young woman less emotionally strong than RC would have cracked, done something foolish. 3. Someone has to show the red card. Ideally it should be self regulation by the industry. That could be strengthened by ethical advertisers who walk out of radioactive channels. The courts stepping in is a halfway house. As the Editor sometimes points out, don’t invite the government in. Those interventions are not benign, altruistic. They will crush what little remains of autonomy.