Madras HC’s media diktat

IN Media Watch Briefs | 24/08/2016

Should the media refrain from mentioning the names of lawyers while reporting a court case? That’s what the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court thinks. In a startling judgment, the bench directed the court’s registrar to instruct media not to do so as that would apparently be tantamount to advertising their professional abilities, reports The Hindu. The judges felt that the media should also not publish the names of the justices presiding over a case. The ruling was given after the bench found that a lawyer had filed a fraudulent case of sexual violence involving Dalit children for the sake of his own publicity. Needless to say, the media are unlikely to heed this particular ruling by the Madras High Court.

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