PTI, NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today frowned upon media houses for disclosing the identity of an eight-year-old girl who was gang raped and killed in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir, and asked why action be not taken against them for “injustice to the privacy and dignity of the victim”.
The high court also prohibited the media from revealing any further identity of the victim by any means, including name and photographs for which 12 media houses, comprising print and electronic, were issued notices for the “unfortunate” and “extremely distressing” manner of reporting.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar, which on its own took cognisance of the media reports, said that there was a need for the media to “circumspect on reporting to the extent it is in contravention of the law”.
“Freedom of press has to be balanced with integrity of judicial process and must comport with the requirement of the law,” the court said.
It issued notices to 12 media houses and prohibited them “from effecting any publication including the name, address, photograph, family details, school details, neighbourhood or any other particulars which may have an effect of leading to the disclosure of the identity of the child victim”.
The bench said that it was restricting issuance of notice to only the 12 entities as it did not have information of the other media houses which have effected similar publications and when the details would be known, notices would be issued to them as well.
