News Lost Between Sense And Sensationalism: Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi

Senior third term sitting MP; Former Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee; Former Additional Solicitor General of India; senior national spokesperson of Congress; Eminent Jurist Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi in his keynote address as the special guest of honour at the BW Legal World Summit sheds lights on MEDIA: DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES.  

With a view to bringing hard-hitting facts to the fore, eminent jurist Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi spoke on ’Media: Diverse Perspectives’ with a disclaimer thatthe topic would be of no use to anyone, unless words are an assault on the senses.  

Dr Singhvi opened the address with an impenitent remark that if the press has been given the exalted status of the fourth pillar of democracy, it has to face the slings and the arrows of scrutiny, just as much as any and all of the other three pillars, which are subjected to minute gaze and accountability, every day.  Calling out the Indian media out for its coverage, Singhvi said the news has plummeted in the wrong direction of the equation between sense and sensationalism, between news and noise, between civility and chaos, between violence and extremism. Alarmed by the order of the day, Singhvi alerted the audience that time may not be very far off, when one would need to invent the new offense of verbal terrorism, visual extremism and content fundamentalism.  

The toxic triangle of viewership of ratings, and of revenue along with the liberal and spicy doses of politics, of glamour, of insidious government control, of premeditated and motivated stands of ambitious anchors, and of a public baying for blood are the factors in play, said Dr Singhvi.  

“A trial by press by electronic media, or public education is the very antithesis of the rule of law. It can well lead to a miscarriage of justice. A judge has to guard itself against any such pressure, and he is to be guided strictly by the rules of law,” stated Dr Singhvi while quoting lines from the Rajendra Jawanmal Gandhi judgment of the Supreme Court of India delivered in 1997.  

Conscious of the fact that the talk would be akin to a lecture without concrete steps and solutions, Dr Singhvi said it is high time one acknowledged the mistakes, took responsibility for being answerable to the public, and understood that we need to bring solutions to the table even if it requires repealing archaic laws like the Press Council Act that is a toothless tiger with zero strength.