Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Aug 2 : In view of mushrooming of news portals on social media without following the procedure governing the field, High Court today sought response with regard to running of these portals.
A Public Interest Litigation has been filed about the mushrooming growth of news agencies on social media especially the news portals which are involved in circulating fake news. It is alleged in the plea that in the Union Territory, several such news portals like Kashmir News, Kashmir Voice, Kashmir Breaking News, News Kashmir 24/7, Kashmir Business Hub and Bol Kashmir etc are operating freely without any registration or license from any authority and these news portals are not under supervision and control of any authority whatsoever.
“We call upon the respondents to file response specifically pointing out to provisions of law under such news portals if at all are required to be registered or licensed and if so whether the above news portals are running with due permission in accordance with law and whether any agency is examining the contents of the news circulated by these news portals. A reply in this regard may be filed within one month”, Division Bench of Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Sanjay Dhar directed.
Court sought the response to the plea from Principal Secretary Information, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Divisional Commissioner Jammu and Director Information Jammu & Kashmir. It has been submitted before the court that Principal Secretary Information is the official spokesperson of the Govt. of J&K besides being In-charge of the Department of Information responsible for regulating the services provided by all media agencies operating within the Union Territory of J&K in both the regions.
Court has been informed that there are multiple news agencies and Whatsapp/Facebook/YouTube news channels and other electronic news agencies operating in both the regions which are actively engaged in the transmission of various types of news bulletins and reports.
It is also known fact, petitioners added, that every person with a hanging camera and holding a mic poses himself as a journalist irrespective of the fact whether she/he is authorized and permitted to work as journalist and whether he or she has the requisite qualification.
In absence of any permission having been granted by the competent authority for running a news portal it is sufficient to infer that there is no proper, legal and regulatory mechanism in place at present with the result a state of confusion prevails on the subject as to the genuineness of any news transmitted by such channels/ portals. The Facebook and WhatsApp journalists have now moved a step ahead by blackmailing the government as well as private officials, civil contractors etc. on a daily basis.
“It is a known fact that a number of persons in the employment of the Govt. of Union Territory and the Union Govt. are actively working with media houses, news channels and have also joined social media news groups. The employees are supposed to be governed by the set of conduct rules as are in vogue both in the Union Territory of J&K and the Union Govt. Under these rules any employee indulging in any other activity social or otherwise has to obtain a proper and prior permission from the competent authority or else to face the disciplinary action”, reads the plea.
“It is well established norm that any employee holding any part time or full time office of profit in his own name or under some fake name has to obtain proper permission from the competent authority under the conduct rules. Even as employ creating ownership or proprietorship of any paper / media house/ news channel by proxy in the name of any member of family has also to obtain proper permission and reflect the income / saving in the annual property statement”, Advocate Shafkat Nazir submitted.
“It is obligatory upon the respondent-authorities to scrutinize the credentials and antecedents of every person holding any direct or indirect position in any media house, media channel and / or social media group and identify the Govt. employees so that they are made to choose either their employment in the Govt. or in the media house”, he added.
Court has been apprised that in many cases the Govt. employees working in the media houses are sometimes interviewing the bureaucrats and politicians on vital issues which again violates the conduct rules. There is also a chance of black mailing of officers of Govt. by such employees cum journalists which aspect is also required to be verified, identified and dealt with by the respondents.
Two reliefs have been sought in the plea to curb the mushrooming of news portals: one is to designate a regulatory authority for grant of permissions to the social media news channels/ networks/ pages/ portals and the authorities not to allow any social media news network/ agency/ page/ portal to function without proper license/ permission.
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