Indian Journalists Union terms Andhra Pradesh High Court gag order unfortunate

VIJAYAWADA: The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) has strongly felt that the order of the Andhra Pradesh High Court directing the media not to publish the contents of the First Information Report (FIR) filed by the Andhra Pradesh Anti-corruption Bureau (ACB) against a former Advocate General of the State and some relatives of a judge is most unfortunate. It amounted to denial of the fundamental right of freedom of the press and people’s right to information, the IJU said. 

On an urgent motion, the High Court on Tuesday late evening directed that “the news in regard registration of FIR or in context of the said FIR shall not be made public in any electronic, print or social media”.  It may be noted that several media outlets published the news with details hours before the High Court intervention.   

In a statement issued on Wednesday, IJU president K Sreenivas Reddy and secretary general Balwinder Singh Jammu felt that the AP High Court’s blanket order was a judicial overreach on the rights and privileges of the fourth estate of democracy —the Media, which is as important as the other three estates, Legislature, Executive and the Judiciary. 

The IJU said the restrictions on the publication of the information in the FIR against prominent legal luminaries and their relatives, in the long run, would work against the interests of petitioner and others, giving ample opportunity for speculative and imaginary perceptions in the minds of common public, which would not be conducive ‘for truth and fair play’. The IJU hoped that the judiciary would reconsider its decision infringing on the rights of the fourth estate.