Delhi : Government power should not be used to threaten Journalists and Views :Supreme Court Advised
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has said that state force should never be used to suppress political views or journalists. The court said the political class should also introspect on the level of views being expressed in the country and journalists should also act more responsibly in the “Twitter era”. A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundaresh made these observations while quashing an FIR against the editors of a news web portal and others in relation to articles published in West Bengal. The Supreme Court said that in a country which takes pride in its diversity, it is natural to have different perceptions and opinions, including political views.
The bench said that this is the essence of democracy. It said, “State force should never be used to suppress political opinion or journalists.” how to report it. Senior advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing for the West Bengal government, informed the bench that the state has decided to withdraw the FIR lodged against opindia.com editor Nupur J Sharma, YouTuber Ajit Bharti and others. Including its founder and CEO. The top court said that it does not want to miss an opportunity to speak about the issues troubling the society and the court.
The bench said, “There is no doubt that the political class of the country needs to introspect on the decline in the level of talks taking place in the present era. A country that is proud of its diversity is bound to have different views or opinions on a subject.” The Supreme Court had earlier stayed further proceedings on a fresh FIR lodged in West Bengal. The top court had on June 26 last year stayed further action in three FIRs lodged against the petitioners in West Bengal. In their application, Sharma and others had said that they were compelled to approach the apex court due to persistent harassment and harassment by the West Bengal government, which filed several FIRs against them in their attempt to stop media reports.
It said that the FIR pertains to the media reports published in ‘opindia.com’ regarding the Telenipara communal riots of May 2020 and was registered at the same time as the FIR, which is the subject of the writ petition. Sharma and others, including the founder and CEO of the news portal and the editor of its Hindi language publications, claimed that the West Bengal government and its “authoritarian Kolkata Police” had filed FIRs and “police powers” to intimidate journalists. ‘ is being misused.
